Nya could feel something hard underneath pushing into her side and dampness beneath her fingers. The last thing she remembered was reading on the sofa. She cracks her eyes open to discover herself outside under the night's sky and the shade of a tree. "Shiiit..." She rises slowly and scans around. She was off the pack grounds in the middle of dense trees and thorny bushes. She did it again.

Carefully, she stands. Her legs were fine. She touches her mouth and nose looking at her fingers for blood and thank her lucky stars there wasn't any. She didn't seem to have even a scratch.

All four directions appeared the same and visibility was a few feet. It was a toss-up on which way she should go. She then thought about the angle her feet were facing when she was on the ground. It was her best bet.

She carefully takes each step making sure not to step on a critter or trip over tree roots. Barely a few minutes passed when she could have sworn she heard her name being called. She glances around. "Someone there?"

No response came. She assumed she was hallucinating and continued. Then after a few hundred feet, the sound of crackling leaves and snapping sticks coming from behind stops her. She turns around and out of the darkness, a towering frame appears. "Who are you?"

"Nya..."

She exhales. "Alpha Vince..." With the moon's light hidden by the leaves she couldn't see his face but his voice she could recognize anywhere. Her knees went weak with the sudden relief that trickled in all over her and it wasn't because she was found. There was a yearning feeling she didn't know had built up and the sudden lack of an ache upon hearing him made her realize its existence.

"Are you okay?"

She nods.

"Nya?" He steps closer.

He couldn't see her she registered. "Yes sir."

"Are you hurt?"

She could make out his sharp features, the worry lines crinkled on his forehead, and the concern in his gaze. "No sir."

He neared, so close, that she had to bend her neck to look up at him. His palms rest on her cheeks inspecting forcefully.

The tips of her fingers glide over the back of his hand. "I'm okay."

Suddenly he pulls her into his arms. His chest rose and sank heavily and his biceps constricted around her. "Nya..."

Her eyes close involuntarily as her body relaxes. She never felt this comfortable in her bed. "I'm sorry." She whispers.

"Don't be..." He pulls back and clears hair from her face. "I put your safety in untrustworthy hands. Never again."

Her lips part. He was keeping her safe to keep wolves safe from the humans but it was the way he said the things that he said, that for just milliseconds she could think otherwise. Vince of the Darks could never have feelings for a low ranked glitched freak. And what was she even thinking, he is Malina's mate. He loves her and she loves him no matter what the circumstance right now.

She steps back almost hurdling out of his arms and curls hair behind one of her ears. "Umm..."

He unexpectedly grabs her wrist and flips her palms upward. His thumb glides over a slash that continues through both forearms. It was already healing. "What happened?"

"Training..."

"Again?" His brows furrow. "Who was it this time?"

She opens her mouth but somehow she felt like she would be a tattletale or a complainer if she said that his ex Shay was pretty annoyed. Now that Malina was out of the picture, it seemed she was feeling a bit territorial of the space around her alpha. "Does it really matter? It was my fault anyway."

"The same individual who sliced your back, that's what I heard."

"It can only make me stron-"

"What if you didn't have my blood healing you?"

She shrugged. "One day I won't."

"You'll always have my blood in you. Think... where is it going to go? It will be diluted over time, sure, but it will never completely leave your system. It's a part of you now."

Her stomach felt like a washing machine during the spin cycle. What was it that she was seeing in his eyes? It was confusing and alluring at the same time. "So..."

"Shh..." he cuts her off and looks around as if he heard something. "We have to go... come-"But before they could make a move. "Ahhh!" he drops on a knee."

"Alpha Vince! Are you-" she squeals as he suddenly scoops her up and runs at high speed through the trees. The gates open when they got back to Dark grounds. He hurries back to the mansion where he sets her on her feet and closes the door. "Are you okay?" She asks.

He reaches to the side of his lower back almost his waist and pulls out a dart.

"Oh my god." She remembered immediately the rogue's new weapon. Wolfsbane laced darts. The guaranteed death of a werewolf. It can't be.

He narrows his eyes to her. "Go to bed."

"What? No... how can I..." she trails off as he turns and walks off. She stood there a minute and hoped she was going to wake up from an awful nightmare. She pinched herself even, but she didn't wake up on the sofa. She was still standing there. She breathes in deeply, having to take in what just transpired. It was real. "It can't be."

She follows Vince's steps to the study and opens the door. "Alpha Vince..."

He was shirtless and had both of his palms on his desk. His back was facing her and below on the left side was a red speck looking to be growing spider veins around it.

"I told you to go to sleep."

She nears as she points out. "You're hurt." She reaches out and just as she is about to touch the venomous area he turns and grabs her hand.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I..." She mumbles. "I can't do nothing..."

"What do you care?" He tugs her closer. "I am your capture."

"You're my alpha. You took us in when we had nowhere else to go. This is all my-"

"Shhh..." He cups her jaw with his left hand and settles his thumb over her lips.

"Vin." Bent comes barges in distraught looking. His shirt was overflowing out of his pants and his hair was a disheveled mess. "Are you okay?"

"As good as I'm going to get." He lowers his hand.

"Are you sure?" Bent swallows. "I mean, are you sure it's wolfsbane?"

Vince nods.

Nya covers her mouth. She finally killed someone with her stupid defects.

"Let's go.." Bent orders. "We have to run some tests and..."

"No point." Vince takes out the dart from his back pocket and tosses it on his desk. If you want to have it tested, go ahead."

Bent's eyes scanned around the room like he was in complete disarray "What about knowing how long you have? We can-"

"It doesn't matter. What matters now is protecting the clan and avenging my death."

"No." Bent shakes his head. " I can't accept this."

"You don't have a choice, little brother. You're alpha now."

"No." He shakes his head.

Nya was frozen staring blankly at his face.

"When I found her, it was impossible for her to travel that far on her own, not to mention at a fast pace. Someone took her there."

"Did you get a scent?"

"It was masked but find Anderson and lock him in the chambers. He has to be involved somehow."

"Yes sir." Bent agrees. "Should I send help?"

"No."

"I'll stay with him and I'll call if anything happens." Nya volunteers.

Vince doesn't disagree so Bent nods and shuts the door once he is on the other side.

Nya squeals when with harshness he lifts her into his arms. "What are you doing?"

"You think I'm going to lay here dying?"

"You should rest though."

"What for, Nya?" He turns climbing up the stairs. "Whether it be now or later I will die."

"Don't say that."

"It's a fact."

He goes into her bedroom and sets her on the bed. Both his palms press onto the mattress as he leans close to her face. She swallows as his eyes searched her's for heavy seconds and in a hushed tone that soothed her somehow he says. "It's late... get some rest."

"I can't."

He rolls his eyes " I can't be worried about you right now. Nya, I'm going to fight as long as I can... and I'm not asking, I'm telling you. "Stay here and get some rest."

She looks away from his eyes and down at the white sheets beneath her fingers. This was all her fault. If he didn't have her around he would have had no reason to be in the middle of the forest. Why didn't he send someone else to get her? Why get her at all? "You shouldn't have came."

"And who would have stopped you from continuing to go in the wrong direction?"

"I would have figured it out eventually."

He sucks his teeth and removes himself from near. His back was facing her now and she watched as he raked his fingers through his hair. "Not a risk I'm willing to take."

"But why? You could have sent someone else."

"After mistrusting someone with you already."

"Alpha Vince, you're letting my issues be yours, and now..."

He turns around "This is the last thing I need right now, Nya."

She felt an urgency to do something but she could only be in the way. The least she could do after killing him was nothing. She nods. "Okay."

He didn't wait another second before he disappeared from her sight. He goes into his room, gets a shirt, and leaves her and her guilt alone.

~~~~~~~~~

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