I'm out of breath by the time I finish racing up the stairs and speed-walking to the infirmary located inside of the pack house. Standing guard outside of the room are Thing 1 and Thing 2- the same freaking guards I had assigned to keep me safe yesterday. They sure did their job well. I still managed to get snatched by a warlock- it worked out well for me, seeing that it was Eli. However, they kind of suck at their job. 

When they see me and their Alpha approaching the room, they slightly straighten their backs and face forward as if they were guarding Buckingham Palace. I roll my eyes and attempt to open the door, but freaking Jared puts his hand out to stop me from entering. I glare at him while crossing my arms.

"Let me through."

Jared looks past me, right at Grayson to get approval before allowing me entry. It's so frustrating that my boyfriend needs to give permission before I'm allowed to visit my sick friend. I'm supposed to be the Luna of this pack, and I may not know exactly what that means quite yet, but I should be respected more than this. I'll need to talk to Grayson about this, but now is not the time.

Once I enter the room, I realize it's the same exact same room I woke up in after the vampire attack. The same exact room where I finally put the pieces together of this huge werewolf-supernatural puzzle. How times have changed.

Eli is laying on the bed with an IV drip in as he lazily flicks through channels of a television opposite his bed. The sounds of the boring news shifts to background noise when he sees me. A smile takes over his face as he sits up a little straighter and beckons me over to him. I walk in his direction with Grayson on my tail.

I frown when I see purple handprints over Eli's neck, another reminder of what happened yesterday. I'm once again flooded with guilt just thinking about what my mate did because of me and how I forgot to check up on Eli sooner.

Tears flood my eyes at the overwhelming emotions. I know that Grayson can feel my emotions because of the recent marking. He places his arm around my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me, but I only shrug it off and go closer to Eli. 

Eli opens his arms for a hug and I happily hug him back. I can feel this irrationally anger pounding in my brain, so it's very obvious that Grayson is unhappy with my actions. He should be upset- I'm still not quite over what he did to Eli. Even though I love Grayson and let him mark me, that doesn't mean that I agree or even like all of the decisions he makes.

Before I know it, I'm sniffling and my tears are staining Eli's hospital gown. He pulls me closer to him so that I'm sitting on the bed next to him. He rubs my back while telling me not to cry and that's he's fine. I back away from him and inspect his neck. The bruises are fresh, so they look much worse than I imagined they would.

"I'm so sorry, Eli. I-it looks like it hurts really badly..." I wipe a tear that falls from my eye as I look over Eli's other injuries. He still looks like he was hit by a bus, but at least he's not as pale as he was yesterday.

The next thing I know, Grayson's hand lays on top of mine. In any other situation, I would have been grateful for his touch. Now, it's more painful for me because it reminds me that this whole situation is my fault. Eli would be healthy and happy with his coven if it weren't for me. I don't know what comes over me, but I slap Grayson's hand away from me.

He looks shocked, his eyebrows raising up so much that they hide behind his dark messy hair. I bet he was expecting that since I was newly marked I would become complacent- absolutely not. I'm not a werewolf, so it is possible that I'm not affected as much by the marking as Grayson is- hence his need to be constantly touching me all morning.

"Oooh... Look like you're in the doghouse, buddy," Eli smirks as he puts an arm around me. I know Eli is taunting Grayson, but I'm more upset with Grayson than I am with the blonde warlock. I choose to stare down at the bedding and play with my fingers instead of commenting.

Grayson's growl rings through the room at someone else touching his mate, but one glare from me and a raise of an eyebrow has him clenching his fist tightly and prevents him from tearing Eli to shreds.

Eli grins in victory and lays back down on the bed. He winces as he tries to reposition himself, so I lean over and help him get more comfortable. I fluff his pillow and tuck in the blanket around him.

A light knock on the door brings me out of my task. Axel's head peeks into the room.

"Everything okay in here? You didn't kill the warlock, did you?" Axel and Cooper walk completely into the room, on-guard and ready to bust into action if needed.

"Unfortunately, no," Grayson mumbles under his breath. He begins pacing slowly through the room, his eyes never straying from me. I can tell he's itching to scoop me up and leave, but my stubborn nature would only make me more pissed with him.

"I'm glad the whole gang is here because I have a request. One that would make Thea feel better about you almost strangling me to death yesterday." Eli sits up slowly to look at the big bad Alpha, and I'm surprised that there is no fear in his eyes. Even though he's vulnerable and weak, he still displays courage. Or he's just an idiot... maybe that's it.

Grayson fold his arms over his chest and clenches his jaw. He steps closer to us, and I can sense him slowly losing control. His eyes are slightly dilated, but thankfully that is his only wolf-like characteristic showing right now.

"You don't get to make requests. I spared your life for one reason, and one reason only- Thea. You're on very thin ice. If you keep talking, I may just snap your neck." Grayson's canines are slowly elongating as his aggression comes to the forefront. I hate all of these threats! Why can't they just get along? Or just learn to not get on each other's nerves? It's very obvious that Eli knows what he's doing, and he's quite enjoying getting on Gray's nerves.

"You would snap my neck in front of your innocent mate? She would never forgive you. Also, you'll never know what the coven is planning if I don't help you, and Thea will die as a resul-"

Eli's sentence is cut off when Grayson punches a hole clear into the wall. I flinch at the volume, and when Grayson comes storming over to us, I'm shoved immediately behind Eli. With the little strength he has, Eli whispers some words in latin and a defensive shield separates us from Gray. Grayson hits it head-on and falls back unexpectedly. 

The forcefield doesn't look like the one he and Elle created before- this one is more sheer and has visible cracks and holes scattered throughout it. Eli looks like he's in pain the longer he holds it, and I shake him to stop his focus.

"Stop, Eli! You're hurting yourself!"

In that time, Grayson, Cooper, and Axel have all stepped up as far as they can to the forcefield, and Grayson looks as if he's about to shift into his wolf right now. Once again, his claws are out, his canines are elongated, and his eyes are completely black. His chest is heaving from the force of his breaths, and if looks could kill, Eli would be a corpse faster than you can say "squirrel."

"I'm not stopping," Eli grunts, "until I know he won't hurt you." 

Grayson's breaths stop immediately as he stares at Eli, his head tilting to the side adorably. His eyebrows scrunch together, causing two wrinkles to appear between his brows. 

"I would never hurt Thea. I love her. I was coming for you," Grayson explains quickly. Cooper and Axel stand slightly behind him as they watch the back-and-forth with caution. Cooper looks over at me and I give him a small nod to let him know that I'm okay. He relaxes only slightly.

"With you fucking mutts, it's so easy to have collateral damage. I'm not letting her get hurt because you can't control yourself." Eli gasps for air as he becomes paler and paler. He looks like he's on the verge of passing out, and all I want to tell him is that the only person at risk of getting injured is him. I'm seriously concerned that all the recovery Eli's made in these past 12 hours will have been for nothing. Using magic drains him, and he needs every bit of strength he can get. 

Grayson's eyes go back to their normal color as his human features return. He calms down enough to look Eli in the eyes. 

"Hurting her would kill me. I'd rather die than lay a hand on her in any way that could harm her."

The two share a look before Eli nods and whispers words to release the enchantment. Grayson walks over to us and immediately picks me up, forcing me to wrap my legs around his waist as he holds me protectively against his chest. He buries his nose in my hair as he collects my scent. I let him hold me to calm himself down, knowing that this is Gray's best chance to see that Eli is on our side.

When Grayson calms down enough, he puts me down while still keeping a hand on my waist. He walks over to Eli, and I'm afraid for a moment that he's going to decapitate him or something. When I see him reach out his other hand for Eli to shake, I wouldn't be surprised if my eyeballs fly out of their sockets. They're shaking hands. The two species that hate each other. 

"I appreciate your effort to protect Thea, no matter how absurd the thought is that I could in any way harm my own mate."

Eli nods his head, then relaxes against the hospital bed to regain some of the energy he just lost.

"Now do you believe me? I want to save Thea just as much as you do. My coven is not filled with good people. We're not taught to care for others. I don't know what it is about her that just makes me want to protect her, but I will never let my coven be the cause of her death. So, let me tell you my plan to save her so we can work together." 

Eli relays the plan to us, and Grayson is immediately shaking his head no.

"Absolutely not. You may have Thea's best interest in mind, but there's no way I'm trusting your bitch of a twin to help us, too." 

Eli groans as he rolls his eyes. He pushes his platinum blonde hair out of his eyes as he tries to reason with Gray. 

"Listen, I need to be at full strength if we're going to catch the coven off-guard. I can use any magic except healing magic because the coven would instantly know that I disobeyed them and chose Thea's side. We need Elle to relay the coven's plans to us and to heal me so that you have two strong coven members on your side. Without her, this plan won't work."

"Then I guess this plan won't work," Grayson says with finality. He's used to no compromise and always doing what he wants. If bringing Elle into the fold is the only way to ensure my safety, then I think that's what we need to do.

"It's the only option!" Eli's voice becomes more hoarse as he becomes more and more agitated. "Elle can tell us when they plan to attack so we can be prepared! Besides the coven leader, we're the strongest magic-wielders. They won't be able to fight back for long if you and your dogs come along!"

"Don't call my pack fucking dogs, you worthless, magic-whore!"

The argument begins to escalate, and Cooper and Axel stand silently behind their Alpha, obviously in support of whatever he decides to do or say. I don't feel that way.

I don't exactly trust Elle- the few conversations I've had with her weren't exactly great, but if she's anything like Eli, I think I can rely on her to help us. Eli trusts her with his life, so I should have some faith in that.

"I think we should do it," I add quietly. The two stop arguing as if I had screamed at them. Four heads turn to look at me and I immediately duck my head and give them all an innocent smile. With eight pairs of eyes burning through me, I clear my throat and repeat myself with more confidence.

"I think we should do it. If Eli trusts Elle, then I think she could help us. And she could heal Eli so he's not in any pain."

"Don't let your guilt for his current state affect your decision, baby. I know you feel bad that he's hurt, but he knew what he was getting himself into when he helped you-" Grayson says, but I cut him off.

"I'm not, Gray. I do feel bad, but that's not why I agree with him. You need to fight magic with magic. Without them, I may as well just turn myself over to them right now. You saw how easily Eli grabbed me yesterday- and he was almost dying. Any one of those coven members can do the same in an instant. We need her." 

Grayson seems compelled by my logic as well as upset about the idea of someone taking me away from him. He comes behind me and wraps his arms around me as he places his chin on the top of my head. He takes a slow breath through his nose, and after collecting his thoughts, he turns to Axel.

"What do you think? You know I value your opinion a lot."

Axel stares at Eli, studying his body language with precision. Once he's done finding whatever he was looking for, he rubs a hand over his face.

"Look, I think that witches and warlocks are deceiving, lying creatures that only lookout for themselves. However, for some insane reason, I think he's being genuine in his care for her. I'd say it's a risk worth taking."

Cooper nods his head along with his mate in one of his more serious moods. It's always strange when I see that Cooper has a professional side to himself versus the jokester version I always see. There must be way more layers to him than I originally thought. With a sigh, Grayson walks up to Eli.

"Alright. I'll grant your sister permission to legally enter my pack land. However, and I mean this, if either of you does anything to betray us, I will give you a death so painful that you'll wish you were never born. Axel loves causing pain even more than I do, so don't test us. Okay?" Grayson raises an eyebrow at Eli as he reaches his hand out to shake, but Eli's gaze is locked on Axel who has a murderous glint in his eyes and an evil smirk that rivals the Joker's.

With a gulp, Eli nods quickly and shakes Gray's hand. Of course the conversation had to end in a threat...

I'm really glad that we have a working plan now. As much as I trust that Grayson would never let anyone harm me, there was always this thought in the back of my mind that the coven could get to me. After the vampire attack and the nightmare spell, I don't know how much more supernatural pain I can take. 

With my mate and my good friend working together, maybe I do have a chance to get out of this mess alive and unharmed.

Maybe.