Fire raged around me, engulfing the trees and Callum's people. Screams from the pack echoed through the smoky forest. I pumped my legs as hard as I could and glared into the fire to see if anyone was trapped.

The Council was here for me.

I should've been running far away from here.

But I couldn't get myself to leave while there were innocent people burning in the woods, all because The Council didn't care who lived and who died in war. They would search the ends of this fucking earth until they captured me again.

Still, the promise of horrors and terror forced me to keep moving. I could've turned myself in and stopped this entire thing, but they would do worse to me this time compared to what they had done last time.

Callum didn't know half the shit they put me through, and I refused to ever tell him. If he found out about it, he would hate me for who they had forced me to become, the tests they promised to run, the sterilization.

All for what? I didn't know.

"Please, someone help me!" Callum's mother shouted from the fire.

Digging my heels into the ground, I stopped in my tracks and raced toward her. She was half-shifted, her arm stuck underneath a burning and collapsed tree. I swallowed hard, told myself that I would do anything to protect them, and shoved my hands right onto the burning tree to push it off her.

Sweat dripped down my body from the sheer temperature. I pulled her away from the fire and placed my hands on her wolf-like arm, patting out the flames as best as I could, but the damage had already been done to her—these burns would never heal.

Not even as a wolf.

"Dear," she said, fully shifting back into her human form. She clutched her broken and fragile arm and let a tear fall down her cheek. "Your hands. They must be burning. Where did you get all that strength?"

I turned my hands up and stared down at the burn wounds that were healing quickly on my skin, something that had never happened before. If I was still a human, I would've had burns on my hand for the rest of my life.

Even as a werewolf, I didn't think I'd be able to heal this quickly.

Neither did she apparently.

"Your wounds too," she said in a breathy whisper, staring at my hands with wide eyes.

I glanced down at her with furrowed brows, then shook my head and grabbed her un-broken hand. Fire crackled all around us, and the sound of howling echoed through the woods. Still I didn't recognize any of the howls as Callum's.

"We have to get out of here. They're coming."

"I can't move," she said, tears pouring down her cheeks. She pulled her hand from mine and ran it across her leg which was bruising harshly from her knee down. "My leg; I think it's broken. You have to go without me. They're coming for you, not me."

"No," I said, scooping her in my arms. "I'm not leaving you here."

Suddenly, a wolf with large gash wounds across his abdomen sprinted through the forest toward us. With his tail on fire, Milo shifted into his human and grabbed Mrs. Lee from my hold. "We have to get you out of here, Bria. They're pushing us back further onto our property."

"Where's Callum?" I asked, following him through the trees.

"I saw him back there in the fight. I haven't had a chance to ta—"

I turned on my heel and hurried back toward the fire and the fight. It was so stupid, but I physically couldn't stop myself. I should've known better, but Thiago and The Council would kill Callum, and I couldn't let that happen.

Not when Callum made me the happiest that I'd ever been.

Milo captured my wrist and yanked me back. "We have to—"

Large, vicious wolves leapt over the fire from all directions and stalked toward us with their sharp canines dripping with thick, bloodied saliva. My heart hammered inside my chest as I scurried back until my back hit Milo's bare chest.

Fuck, we were screwed.

"You need to shift, Bria," Milo said, holding Mrs. Lee close to his chest. "That's the only way you're going to get out of here alive. I don't care how hard it is. Fucking shift now! Don't let them kill you."

Adrenaline rushed through my body. I dropped to my knees and squeezed my eyes closed, knowing that I wasn't ready, knowing that I wouldn't be able to shift right here and right now. I didn't have the power, nor the time.

Still, I tried, and I tried hard.

"Bria!" Milo shouted, placing Mrs. Lee beside me. "Anytime now!"

Tears built up in my eyes, and I tensed my entire body, hoping that I could force myself to shift in front of the entire Council. But deep down, I knew that I wouldn't be able to do anything. I wouldn't be able to see Callum again. I wouldn't get to tell him I loved him either.

When Milo shifted beside me, the world turned to chaos. Wolves leapt at us from all directions. The fire somehow burned even hotter. My heart pounded inside my chest. And I couldn't even get my wolf to come out now.

Yesterday, I tried so hard to suppress her. Now, she wouldn't help me.

Indescribable pain shot through my body.

"Find mate," she whispered in the back of my mind. "Find mate now."

My body suddenly started shifting at the feel of pain shooting through my body, which wasn't my pain but maybe it was Callum's. Had one of the members hurt him? Was that why I could barely feel my fingers?

Before I could shift fully, three Council members piled on top of me, pinned me to the ground, and restrained me completely, their teeth sinking into my flesh. I glanced around to see Milo knocked unconscious on the ground in his human form again with five wolves standing over him and one wolf looming over Callum's mother.

The wolves dragged me through the forest along with them.

I kicked. I screamed. I desperately tried to get away from them.

"Callum!" I shouted through my tears, my vision slowly fading from the sudden depletion of blood from their canine wounds. "Callum, please, help us!"