There were many moments in the past weeks that I assumed would be my last. With the good majority of those times being at the hands of Matteo ironically enough. Maybe when my pack was attacked, or the time I was kid napped, maybe even the time when I was marked.

But this fear had a much more final feeling to it, a heavy permanence around it that settled onto my chest and was choking me softly.

I stared into Matteo's face, peering at every line and feature in search of some kind of a reaction. I wanted an indicator for how I should be responding to all of this because frankly I was in over my head.

Labored breathing and thundering footsteps could be heard from down the hall and suddenly Samson skidded into the room through the door Matteo had unhinged.

Samson stared from our embrace to Lysander wordlessly and with a flick of her wrist he engaged and approached us.

"Take them both, she's of no use to me now." Lysander instructed over her shoulder, not bothering to turn and face me, her only child.

No use?

Matteo was up in an instant and even in my dazed shock, I noticed the muscles in his arms rippling as he barred Samson from stepping any closer.

His eyes were rapidly darkening as were Samson's and I knew that I couldn't let Matteo do anything stupid on my behalf since I was a lost cause for saving, there no sense in having Matteo get the sh:t beaten out of him.

I immediately shoved off the floor and forced my body into action. I faced Lysander and pleaded with my mother, "We'll go to wherever you want to take us, please just don't hurt Matteo."

Both men suddenly turned, their attention piqued and temporarily distracting them from the stand off they'd been locked in.

"This isn't negotiable, we aren't going anywhere with her and neither are our friends." Matteo interjected with a pointed look in my direction but I was so focused on Lysander.

My eyes bore into her back, waiting for her to turn around and look me in the eye as this was happening.

Matteo grasped my wrist gently and tried to bring me back to him but I was resolute. "Olive." He warned lowly and this time pulled me with more force backwards into him just as Lysander turned around.

"Please, I'll do whatever you want whenever you want it for the time I have left, I just want your word that he will be safe." I pressed once more.

Matteo scoffed as if I was mad, "The time that you have left? Safe? Olive, what is going on?"

And with that, Lysander finally turned around. Her ruby eyes weighing down on me like a thousand bricks before she tore her deadly stare away and onto her next target.

She pointed a pale, wispy finger at Matteo's chest and crept closer to him with a deadly cadence. "Olive is my only child, my sweet, sweet daughter. Which means that she is also part vampire as a result of her lineage and due to your lack of intelligence you've ruined everything, don't you see? This fate is your own, you've done this to yourself."

Suddenly I felt Matteo's firm hold on me falter and he took a tentative step back from me. His amber eyes moved back and forth rapidly across my features, scanning me for some sort of verification for Lysander's statement and I couldn't bare to give it to him.

"Is it true?" His voice didn't sound frightened or saddened, it was devoid of emotion and with every passing second his features were morphing into that same steely exterior from so long ago when I first met him.

Lysander let out a sound of irritation as a heavy silence fell between Matteo and I when I didn't answer him right away, "You've murdered your mate, congratulations."

The harshness of her words stunned me to the core, her words stung like and icy blade and I could tell that I was not the only one that felt brutalized by it.

Matteo looked as if he truly had killed someone, the expression on his furrowed brow looked so pained so suddenly. This time it was me that was reaching out to grip his arm but Matteo flinched and jerked his arm away from me as if my very touch disgusted him.

I felt my lip begin to tremble.

He refused to look at me as he turned to Samson and offered him his wrists which were quickly clasped in silver. Matteo didn't even flinch, the pain had already been etched into his features so much so that there wasn't any need for an additional reaction.

"You are right, she is of no use to you and I am to blame. Do whatever you want with me but let Olive go free for whatever time she has left." He sounded so distant and I couldn't help the tears that spilled over, why was he doing this to me? Why was he so upset with me when I couldn't do anything to stop this?

Lysander clicked her tongue and shook her head and in an instant Samson was repeating the process with my same wrists. "You're not the alpha dog here, that's not how things work. Take them to the cells with the others."

Others?

Samson shoved me forward past Matteo and through the door, yanking him along behind us. We were out in the hallway and Out of sight from the room when a loud crack like something had broken, ripped through the silent walkway from behind us.

I turned around as he marched and I saw the broken crystal orb lying in pieces behind me and I couldn't keep the ominous feeling away. It was a very apt depiction of how my life was going right in this very moment.

While I was turned around, my eyes lingered on Matteo. I waited for him to look up and acknowledge me but he didn't. He wouldn't look back and me and before I knew it Samson was tanking my head back around the right direction down the hall and I lost my chance to see if he ever would look up.