Amias, Devin and Fran paraded inside of the entryway all the while Amias grumbled under his breath about inappropriate public displays of affection.

My first reaction was to scoff and roll my eyes but as I rolled off of Matteo and my back pressed soberingly against the cool, marble floor. It was like I was coming down from this massive runner's high. All of the euphoric adrenaline that had been coursing through my system vanished, Amias and his righteous judgement brought me back to earth instantly.

I clambered up off the floor, causing Matteo to follow in suit standing with a low groan as he sought to help balance me. He held an arm around my waist as I surveyed the room.

My father.

He was still on the floor in a pool of his own blood, unmoving and mute. If it weren't for the crimson pool around him it would almost look like he was sleeping.

But he wasn't sleeping.

Matteo followed my gaze across the room and tightened his arm around my waist, turning me away from my father. It was almost as if he could feel the impending emotional crash, I was coming down from the climax and I realized that I lost both of my parents today—more importantly, I lost my father today.

God I felt so stupid, moments ago I'd been all over Matteo just feet away from all of this carnage.

He pressed his lips against my hair, "Don't beat yourself up." Matteo murmured lowly, "You're a brand new wolf experiencing everything fully for the very first time. We all respond in our own way."

Matteo's gaze flickered across the room before giving my shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Take it slow."

I took a deep breath, Amias walked over to my father and covered him up with some sort of curtain he'd taken down from a window I assumed. Letting out the breath I'd been holding with a nod I turned my gaze up to Matteo and looped my arms around his neck. "What's going to happen next?"

Matteo looked down at me with a newfound fondness and parted his lips but as he began to answer me, he was cut off by a sudden interruption.

"Do you guys hear that?"

It was Devin.

We all turned to face the lone vampire, the room fell silent as we all collectively tried to pick up on what Devin was hearing. I got nothing.

No one did.

Fran furrowed her brow, "You must be hallucinating because there's no way a vampire could ever have better hearing than a werewolf."

Devin ignored Fran and her snarky remark entirely as he shook his head and pressed on. "You guys don't smell that either?"

I shook my head as did the rest of our group.

Devin ran both hands through his hair, seemingly out of frustration before he wordlessly took off down the empty hallway; going after I guessed whatever he'd supposedly heard.

Fran frowned and after a moment of blankly staring after Devin she returned her attention to Amias and helping him with all the aftermath.

Matteo rolled his eyes irritably and gently took my chin and returned my attention back to him. "Olive, we get to go and live our lives." Matteo paused, "Together."

I quirked an eyebrow up, not believing the overly sappy sentiment coming from Matteo's mouth. I gently pushed his shoulder and both of us broke into a smile. He tossed an arm around my shoulders with a laugh, "All I know is once we get back to our pack, I'm keeping you locked in our room for a solid week." He growled with a mischievous flint in his eyes that sinfully suggested there might be a grain of truth behind his words.

"After that," He mused with a small shrug, "I'm sure life will have something interesting in store for us."

Us. Us. Us. Us. Us.

Sh:t, that was weird to here. Weird and yet somehow completely and totally right.

Someone cleared their voice and when we turned, Devin appeared standing hand in hand with a girl; a werewolf to be exact.

"I found my soul mate." He informed us with a small smile.

Vampires didn't have mates...they had soul mates. It was the most extra thing I'd ever learned about them but there was a joy spread across Devin's face that I hadn't seen, well, ever. So, I did what was most unnatural to me and held my tongue.

There was a sharp inhale from behind me, Fran. Her eyes wide with disbelief, she wasn't masking her confusion and sadness in the slightest.

To be honest, I was shocked as well. There had been a budding romance between Fran and Devin but the bond of a mate was stronger than anything else, their puppy love stood no chance.

But it didn't make it any easier for me to see Fran so utterly and completely devastated.

As Devin came closer I was able to see his mate better.

I knew it was impossible because I'd never met this stranger in my life before but there was something vaguely familiar about her.

"Guys-" Devin began.

Amias fake coughed, "Fab Five." He corrected under the guise of his cough.

Devin's eye twitched ever so slightly as if he wanted to roll them but he was refraining from doing so in front of his new found mate. "This is Ana."

Ana...

Why does that seem familiar?

"That's why none of you could hear what I was hearing. Ana was all alone in the dungeons and when we touched it was instantaneous..." Devin glanced down at her and wrapped his arm around her waist. He didn't finish his sentence but we knew, it was instant love. Unexplainable love.

"It's nice to meet you all." Ana said quietly.

She seemed absolutely terrified but I didn't blame her, being locked up in Lysander's complex was like hell. I would know.

She peered around the room, her doe eyes searching our small group. "By any chance have you seen my brother?"

Brother?

Oh f:ck.

Based off of the dead silence and the grimaces painted across everyone's faces, we all instantly knew who she was talking about.

This was the sister Ansel mentioned, the one who he took up the mission to turn us in, all in exchange for her freedom. Who was going to tell her?

Ana chewed her lip nervously, "He made some sort of ridiculous deal with Lysander and went off on his own into Freeman's Land and I haven't seen or heard from him in days now, I figured he would be back by now."

Amias opened his mouth after a pained silence loomed over the room a little longer than comfortable. "Your brother Ansel he was--"

Devin was keen to cut Amias off, "He was in good spirits when we came across him a few days back. Said he had some sort of quest to complete and was on his way, he was a decent guy."

All of our heads snapped in their direction, this was not going to turn out good.

Ana nodded once, processing the information before she slipped her hand into Devin's and the pair went off on their own outside without another word.

Matteo gave a curt nod to Amias and Fran before taking my hand and guiding me outside of the complex and into the fresh air.

I glanced behind me, wondering why we weren't helping when a car pulled up in front of us. Matteo gently pulled me forwards, "They've got it covered. You need to get away from here and rest."

I nodded and walked straight into his arms, we walked together like that for a while. I had no idea where we were going but soon we reached a clearing, the same clearing with the stream from when Matteo tried to turn me. He helped me down onto the soft grass and as much as I wanted to stay awake ad be present as soon as I was off of my feat, I curled up in the warm field and fell asleep to the sound of Matteo talking on his phone.

I stirred hours later, only when I felt Matteo's arms lift me from the grass. He held me against his chest and brought us both inside of an air conditioned car, "We're going home." He whispered against my skin and then I fell back asleep again.

It was like one ginormous weight was lifted off of my shoulders. After everything that transpired over the past days, things were settled down and I was going home; not to Grace but to Malice, with friends I never thought I would have and in the arms of my mate.

Life was a crazy b:tch.

"'You're telling me you aren't massively turned on right now?" Elio pressed, his dark eyebrows raising suggestively as if he already knew my answer.

I scoffed with a roll of my eyes, this was my sworn enemy we were talking about, the literal designated bane of my existence.

Placing my hand on his chest, I created space between us; albeit minimal. "The feud, our families...We just can't."

The assassination mission, I wanted to add.

Elio smirked knowingly down at me and batted away my hand that was distancing us, "I know, right? The whole forbidden love thing, it's kinky as f:ck.'"