Sylvia walked ahead of me to join Delta Osvald leading the students into the forest.

I didn't know how to feel about her threat. And it was most definitely a threat, that too to my life.

I felt gentle fingers encircle mine, and I looked to my left to find Valente walk beside me.

"What did she want?" he asked me through our link.

"Nothing. She just wished me good luck on training," I said.

He laughed a beautiful laugh and squeezed my hand a little.

"I didn't know you were a comedian now Rayne," he said.

I sighed.

"She's pissed off. Did you talk to her about this? Us?" I asked him.

"I tried. And now we aren't talking," he said, his expression sour.

I realized that neither of them were willing to compromise, and Sylvia would stick to her word.

"I will take matters into my own hands and I will never let him choose you," she had said.

Is this her way of taking matters into her own hands? By killing me?

"Oh she can try," Imadis said, her temper rising again.

"We'll stop here," Delta Osvald instructed as we reached a small clearing in the forest.

"This requires a lot of upper body strength, especially if you want to be able to hold onto these trees for long," he said, slapping the trunk of a birch tree next to him.

Birch trees were native to our region, along with Rowan, Aspen, and Willow trees. I thought they were beautiful, each with its own different personality.

Valente let go of my hand, but stood near me.

"We'll start with warm ups, and then some basic upper body exercises, before we can start climbing," the Delta said.

As per his instructions, we'd begun warming up, and started the indefinite number of push-ups that made my arms feel sore.

"You haven't told anybody about your shift. Right?" Valente asked me.

"No I haven't," I replied. "Why'd you ask?"

"I don't want anyone to get another reason to call you a threat to the pack," he said.

"Me shifting is a threat to this pack?" I asked him.

"They don't need a real reason to hate you Rayne," he said, and I knew there was truth to his words.

"All right everybody now, up!" Delta Osvald said. "Pick a tree, we're going to start climbing."

I went to stand next to a thick, sturdy-looking one that was closest to me, while Kristján called Valente over to start with his other friends.

I noticed Eidis had chosen the tree closest to mine, and I could immediately tell this wasn't good.

I turned around to look at our seniors, who scaled the trees quite fast, their movements swift and accurate, almost showing off. On the other hand, my classmates were just getting there, although I could tell it was a struggle, as wolves can't climb by nature.

I turned back to my tree when I noticed Eidis had reached quite a bit ahead of me. It wasn't a competition, but I started off faster than I normally would have.

As I climbed the tree with ease, I saw Eidis having trouble climbing. I could tell she wasn't very good at it, but she struggled to keep up with me, now that I'd easily surpassed her.

The trunk got thinner as I reached about fifty feet high, and that's where I decided to stop. I looked down at Eidis who was still struggling. She looked like she was going to throw up, but she kept moving with a weird determination.

As soon as she reached me, unable to go further than the level of my torso, she quickly pulled out a needle from a pocket, and thrust its contents into my thigh.

Immediately I could feel my grip loosening, but I held on tighter fighting through the pain.

This wasn't Wolfsbane, and didn't hurt me as much. But it seemed far more sinister, deadly.

Eidis seemed to be passing out, as she looked at the height she'd reached.

She doesn't like heights.

I could feel a numbness take over my body, my senses were immediately dulled, and a slow burn started at my thigh where I'd been injected.

Even through the mind-numbing sensation, I could tell Eidis was going to fall. She'd survive, but without her wolf, her road to recovery would be very painful and slow.

I didn't have to analyze much before I held on to her arm as tight as I could, just before she completely lost her grip.

"Rayne. Silver," Ima said in my mind weakly, and I couldn't put off the rising panic any more.

I held on to the tree as if for dear life, my fingers holding on tightly to Eidis who had now completely passed out from the height.

"Valente," I said, hoping he'd hear me.

I turned a bit to see him look for me, and it didn't take him long to find me.

"What is happening?" he asked me, my panic reflecting in his voice.

He immediately motioned to the Delta who came to stand under our tree.

"I can't climb down Valente, I can't feel anything," I told him. All I knew was that my grip on the tree and Eidis was strong, and I ignored the burning as long as I could.

Delta Osvald had started to climb Eidis' tree, and Valente climbed another a little further away.

Delta Osvald took Eidis from me, just as Valente reached me.

"Give me your hand Rayne," he said, extending his arm to me as much as he could.

As soon as I let go of the tree to do so, I couldn't find feeling in my limbs again. I felt paralyzed, my legs going slack as I started to fall, Valente too far to get a hold of me before I completely lost my grip.

I guess I was quite high up because the fall seemed longer than it should have.

Even if I could make it through this fall alive, I knew Sylvia and Eidis wouldn't let me live any longer in Fathilagt.

If I opened my eyes again, I had to leave and not come back, at least till Valente took the Alpha title.

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud, multiple cracks in my body, and Valente's voice. My body was numb to all of it, except for the sensation of warm blood flowing underneath my skin.