"No, no, no!" Dylan shouted at the television, where a beautifully dressed woman stood in front of half a dozen men. "Don't give the rose to Alberto!"

I smiled at the sight of my Delta, pacing back and forth in front of the screen like he was watching the Superbowl... The girl on the screen called out Alberto's name, and Dylan threw his head back in shock, "You're kidding me!"

Sophia cackled from where she sat on the other end of the couch, a bowl of popcorn in her lap. She threw little bits of the buttered snack at Dylan, but each throw fell a few inches short. Nolan, who sat on the other side of the couch beside me, frowned at the mess that she was creating.

"I still don't understand why you all like this show," Nolan's frown deepened when the rejected contestant started crying to the cameramen.

"It's romantic!" Sophia defended, now aiming her popcorn arsenal at the side of Nolan's head. A few pieces hit my shoulder in the crossfire, and I wanted to laugh when he started to use me as a shield against his sister's playful attack.

I wanted to laugh, but I couldn't. I hadn't laughed since the night of Nolan's birthday party.

I stayed in the hospital wing for another day after that night, just while the remnants of my Heat faded away. When I no longer needed the ice packs and IV to keep me cool and hydrated, the pack doctors released me. Even though I didn't feel ready to leave-- not emotionally.

I knew that as soon as I left the hospital wing, I'd be exposed. My own pack members wouldn't be able to keep themselves from staring at me-- their Luna who had been marked by another male. The thin bandage that I kept pasted to my neck could hide the wound, but it couldn't hide Dominic's scent. It disgusted me.

On the morning that the hospital released me, however, Nolan arrived to escort me back to his cottage. And he had brought back up. Sophia had brought a change of clothes in a little plastic bag, including a baggy grey hoodie that smelt strongly of pine and peppermint. The fabric swallowed me whole, offering the perfect amount of comfort and protection, and the hood even added an extra layer over the bandage. Dylan came too, although he brought nothing but a non-judgmental smile.

We didn't talk about what happened, and I was grateful that they never asked. Of course, I knew that the entire pack had heard little snippets of details, but Nolan must have warned them against speaking about it in my presence. Everything seemed normal in the pack. Like the night of Nolan's birthday party never happened.

Except it did. And the following week had been one of the hardest of my life.

At least I could distract myself during the day. I threw myself into research on the hybrids, the talisman, and a variety of witch protection spells. I commandeered Nolan's office space, and he never seemed to mind having my constant company. In the evenings, I spent time with Sophia or Dylan, fighting to retain a bit of normalcy in my relationships.

But I'd become a shell of myself. The effects of betrayal at the hands of the one person I placed absolute trust in.

The worst of it occured at night. On my first night out of the hospital wing, I couldn't stand the black silence that blanketed Nolan's bedroom. It felt like I was slipping into defenseless unconsciousness again, so I scurried into the living room and woke up Nolan. He offered to sleep with me, and we both preferred to keep a single light on. But even with my Alpha's warmth beside me and the comfort of a nightlight, flashes of that night still plagued my dreams.

I dreaded going to sleep, which explains why I now sat in the pack house living room with Nolan, Dylan, and Sophia watching trashy reality television.

I smiled and mustered a breathy chuckle, the smallest semblance of a laugh, as I swatted Nolan's hands away from my shoulders, "Hey! I'd prefer not to go to bed covered in popcorn grease..."

"Sophia started it!" Nolan's lower lip puckered in mock self-defense, and his younger sister stuck out her tongue before continuing to shovel handfuls of popcorn into her mouth. I didn't protest when Nolan draped his heavy arm over my shoulders, and I inched closer to his side.

"Are you guys seriously going to ignore the fact that she gave Alberto the rose?!" Dylan complained, waving his hands at the screen in utter exasperation.

"I happen to like Alberto, Dylan," I chirped from my spot between Nolan and Sophia, tucked into my mate's side.

The Delta pointed a finger toward the back of his throat like he might gag. "I guess it makes sense. You do have a thing for alpha-male personalities who end up being disappointingly vanilla in bed," Dylan gestured toward Nolan.

Sophia choked on a handful of popcorn, pounding on her chest to dislodge the stuck food while she chortled. My eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, and a blush tainted my cheeks for the first time in days. The heat that crept up my neck felt... nice.

"Hey!" Nolan complained with a playful smirk gracing his handsome features. "How do you know I'm vanilla in bed?"

"Call it intuition," Dylan quippied in response, and, like lightning, Nolan reached over to grab a handful of popcorn out of Sophia's bowl and hurled it at Dylan. A few pieces of the buttered corn met their target, Dylan's face, but most just scattered across the rug.

"Puh-lease, Dylan," Sophia chimed in with a wicked grin, "We all know you've been obsessed with Nolan for years!"

Dylan growled playfully, "Oh, you're asking for it!" He bent to the floor and started to gather all ofthe fallen bites of popcorn into the palm of his hand. As he gathered them, he hurled them with as much force as possible at both Nolan and Sophia, who had now jumped off the bed to join in the popcorn-fight.

I bit down on my bottom lip, unable to contain the broad smile that illuminated my face as I watched the ridiculous scene unfolding before me. I wanted to laugh, to shriek when a stray kernel collided with my forehead, to join in on the fun. And, to my own surprise, I did.

☾☾☾

The four of us fell asleep that night half-way through a superhero movie of Dylan's choosing. Nolan drifted to sleep first. His head rolled back on the couch cushion, and his mouth cracked open to emit a little sigh with every deep exhale. Soon after, I found myself paying more attention to the steady beat of Nolan's heart than to the movie.

I leaned my head further into his chest, in a subconscious effort to feel the vibrations of my mate's strong metronome on my temple, against my own skin. Someone in the movie screamed, but that was the last thing I remembered before I nuzzled deeper in Nolan's embrace and drifted into sleep...

I slept better than I had in week, surrounded by my closest friends. I slept so well, that I didn't want to wake up when Nolan jolted awake. Dylan leapt to his feet half of a second later, but Nolan made sure to gently cradle my head and place it on a pillow before he joined his Delta. The absence of Nolan's body beside mine woke me up completely.

"Mmm, what's going on?" A groggy Sophia asked from the other end of the couch, where she stretched beneath the woven blanket that she'd been cuddling with.

I blinked in an effort to clear away the edges of sleep from my vision and sat up a bit straighter. Nolan and Dylan weren't speaking to each other, but they seemed to know the same information, judging by the concern clouding their features.

"Hybrids," Nolan explained, while Dylan had already exited the living room. "Crossing from the Broken Valley Pack to Black Lupis."

I stopped breathing. Hybrids? Why are they coming? Do they know about me? A fear rose from my subconscious, gripping my throat with suffocating force... Had Dominic told the hybrids about me? Was he so angry that I'd refused to hear his apologies?

"How many?" Sophia jumped up from the couch, ready for action. I envied her ability to take action while I sat helplessly on the cushions.

"Our scouts only saw two: a mated pair," Nolan continued, all while his eyes glazed over as he spoke to other members of his pack through their mind-link. I realized that he only explained the situation out loud for my sake. Nonetheless, relief flooded my veins. Two hybrids were easier to kill than an entire army...

Sophia cracked her knuckles, "Alright, let's go kill some hybrids." She started to walk towards the exit, but Nolan held up a hand, and she stopped.

"I need you to stay with Charlie, Soph." Nolan instructed, although I thought I detected a hint of an apology in his voice. He knew how badly his little sister wanted to prove herself, but he sidelined her again to babysit me-- the broken Luna.

But, if Sophia was disappointed, she didn't let it show. She nodded her head dutifully and took a step back. She glanced at me and smiled, "We'll hold down the fort."

The brother and sister did not exchange any more words. Nolan's eyes continued to glaze over as dozens of pack members reached out to their Alpha, searching for their next orders. His pupils began to dilate, black overtaking the beautiful blue that I'd come to love, and he took several steps toward the exit. In a matter of seconds, he'd be out of the door and shifted into his magnificent beast.

My legs moved on their own accord, carrying me toward the exit only a few steps behind Nolan. "Wait!" I called out, although I didn't know if he could hear me over the voices in his head, so I reached out with my small hand and grabbed his wrist.

Nolan spun to face me with eyes filled with rage, and I remembered the last time I'd done this... He'd been furious. And yet, his gaze immediately softened upon landing on me, blue returning to the rims of his irises. "Charlie?"

I didn't know why I had stopped him. Nolan cocked his head in momentary confusion, when I opened my mouth to say something, but no words spilled out. I didn't know how to convey the tightening in my chest-- the way my heart throbbed at the thought of him leaving. So I stopped trying to speak and threw myself in his arms.

My actions caught Nolan off-guard, but he quickly recovered and wrapped his strong arms around my body. My own arms gripped tighter to his neck, as if that might make him stay with me for a moment longer. Several seconds passed, and I savored every part of his scent that washed over me, his touch that made my blood boil, and the steady beat of his heart within his chest. My Alpha Nolan.

I let out a shaky breath and whispered in my mate's ear, "Please be safe. I need you."

Nolan nodded, pulled back from our long embrace, and pressed a heartbreakingly gentle kiss to my forehead. To my own surprise, I wanted more. But he had already turned away and disappeared into the night.