I pull Natalie with me towards the house, hoping to get her away from that toxic situation. She never should have had to deal with it in the first place. After a few minutes she snatches her hand away from me and starts walking in front of me, trying to distance herself a little and I give her the space to do it. But I get a little concerned when she starts muttering to herself angrily.

"That stupid idiot. Couldn't keep his fucking dick in his pants. Now that crazy bitch thinks she has some kind of claim on MY mate." She snarls, clearly not talking to me. I give her a little more space, mostly because I'm terrified of her right now.

"Fucking douche bag, acting like I need him to defend me." She scoffs, her hands tightening into fists as we reach the house, she rounds it into the back yard, pacing angrily not even looking at me.

"I'll rip her fucking hair out before I make her eat it. Then I'll pull her eyeballs from her ugly face and squeeze the jelly out of them and eat it on toast." She continues to seethe.

"Uh, Nat?" I say, trying to get her attention, her eyes flicker to me, nearly black with her wolf, until they flash behind me.

"YOU!" She snarls, pointing at Jude and marching up to him. Her fists barrel into his bare chest as she takes her anger out on him, shocking me. I've never seen her this angry. Neither has Jude apparently because he looks at me, eyes wide and lost like I'd know what to do. I just shrug and silently wish him the best.

"You fucking moron! You just claimed me in front of the entire pack!" She spits at him and his brow furrows in confusion.

"So?" He asks and she barks out a humorless laugh.

"So? So how the fuck are we going to explain this to them?" She asks, motioning her hand between the three of us. "How is it going to look when I wear Eli's mark and not yours?" She continues and Jude runs a frustrated hand through his hair.

"I don't know, Nat. I didn't think-" He says, but she cuts him off.

"No, Jude! You didn't think! That's the problem! You never fucking think! You just act first and try to deal with the consequences after! You're so fucking selfish!" Natalie screams and I strain my ears to make sure no one is around to hear this conversation. Jude's eyes darken as his body goes rigid at her words.

"I'm selfish? No, Natalie. If I were selfish I would have driven to that school, shoved you in my car and brought you back the minute you turned eighteen. But I didn't. Because I knew how important it was to you. How hard you worked to get into that school and how proud you were of yourself for doing so well. I'm fucking proud as hell of you. You worked your ass off and you deserved to graduate from there. Yeah, I fucked up. I get that. But I thought you had at least six months left. That I would have to suffer for that long. I didn't know you were graduating early. So I tried everything I could to stay away from you. Until YOU were ready. Not me. You. I tried wolfsbane, but he built up a tolerance to it, I tried running until I passed out. I even tried to collar myself, but every time I did he would force me into a shift." Jude says bitterly and shock rings through me. I had no idea he was doing all of that. Natalie looks up at him with wide eyes, filling with tears.

"You tried to put a silver collar around your own neck?" She asks, her voice breaking as the tears flood down her face. Jude nods, reaching out to wipe her tears away.

Natalie lets out an angry shriek and starts thumping his chest with her fists again, sobbing as Jude lets her take out her frustration on him. Her emotions are overwhelming in my mind and I need to put up a block before they cause me to break as well. She eventually runs out of energy and flings her arms around Jude, tucking her face into his neck as she continues to cry. Sobs wrack her little body and Jude looks up at me, clearly unsure of what to do.

'Hold her.' I link him, so I don't break whatever has come over Natalie that she's looking for comfort in Jude.

He nods subtly and lifts his arms slowly so as not to scare her away. He wraps them around her and tugs her in close to his chest, pressing a kiss to her head and letting his lips linger. He closes his eyes, clearly savoring the touch of his mate. It feels like a breakthrough of sorts, them finally getting their feelings out in the open. Natalie threads her fingers up into Jude's hair, holding him tight as her body begins to relax again.

"I loved you so much, Jude." She whispers and I can watch his heart break all over again as she says 'loved' and not 'love'.

"I will always love you, sunshine." He says back and she hiccups a little as she continues to cling to him.

"I wish you had come to me. I wish you had come to school and let me help you. That's what mates are supposed to do. Rely on each other. Help each other. We could have figured something out. We could have done something. But now it just feels so... broken." She says sadly another choked sob escaping her as Jude pulls her in close again.

"We can fix it, baby. I know we can." He implores and Natalie sighs a little.

"I don't know." She says and Jude's shoulders drop.

"Are you willing to try?" He asks and Natalie averts her eyes, nibbling her bottom lip like she does when she's thinking about something.

"I need time. I need to... think. I need to deal with my feelings." She says and Jude nods, kissing her cheek before he lets her go. It looks like he's in physical pain at losing her touch and for the first time I feel truly sorry for my brother. He handled things wrong, but I really believe his intentions were good. That Natalie was his priority, not himself.

He sighs and takes a few steps away from her as she continues to pace the backyard. She looks anxious, angry and confused. It hurts me to see her this way. We both watch her until she takes off in the other direction, heading towards the forest.

"I need to run." She says.

"What?" I ask and her eyes flit to me, back to the green I've always loved.

"I need to run. I haven't shifted in months. My wolf is going crazy." She says. I open my mouth to respond, but she takes off ahead of me, stripping out of her shirt and throwing it to the ground before jumping and shifting mid air, shredding her pants and landing on her paws.

Her wolf shakes out it's brown fur, takes a deep breath before letting out a pained howl. My own wolf whines in my mind at the sound before she takes off at a break neck speed into the trees. I sigh and pull off my shorts.

"You coming?" I ask Jude and he shakes his head sadly.

"She said she needs time. I'll give it to her. I'll leave her alone, until she wants to talk to me." He says and I sigh heavily, running my hands down my face.

"This was something, Jude. A step or something. You know I'm on your side, right? I'm not trying to keep her from you." I say and open my mind to him so he can see I'm being truthful. He doesn't even bother to look, just nods at me.

"I know, Eli. Go after her. I don't want her out there alone." He says and I nod, preparing to shift.

"Yeah. Who knows what stupid shit Corinne could try to pull if she finds her." I say, no accusation in my tone, but Jude winces anyway.

"I'll deal with her." He says and I nod.

"Good." I answer before shifting, taking off in the same direction as Natalie.

She may not be as strong and well trained as she would have been if she hadn't left for school, but she's still damn fast. I follow her scent for miles until I realize where she's going. I head to the pond where Jude and I taught her to swim. I find her sitting at the edge, looking down at the frozen water. I walk up next to her and nudge her with my snout. She turns to look at me, her eyes sad. She stands and walks next to me, rubbing her body against me and laying on the ground.

I lay down next to her, throwing my leg over top of her to help keep her warm. She purrs a little and nestles into me, laying her head down on my paw. I lick her ear until she lets out a wolfy laugh, then I just sit there with her as she thinks. Just being the person she can lean on.