Even with her hair matted with blood, twigs and leaves sticking everywhere, and sweat and grime plastered to her body, she still managed to look phenomenal. She glowed when she scrambled into the room, everyone's eyes snapping to her. She held so much power within her eyes, which were no longer the ocean blue that drive me wild, but an intense silver that shifted lilac in the light.

It wasn't until she collapsed and let out a scream that everyone snapped out of the daze she held us in, my feet running to her crumpled body. My skin felt on fire as it held her, fear coursing through me as I screamed for the Pack Doctor.

"Angelina! Angelina get here now!" I screamed for her. My mother sat across her body with me, and somehow she looked more terrified than I did. Her eyes were glowing as well as Lena's, even though Lena's eyes were hallway closed. Her skin was ghastly pale, Vampire pale.

I looked up when I saw Angelina running in, grabbing her body as she put it on a gurney. I scrambled after her desperately, the doors shutting behind the gurney and my mother. I tried pushing it open but my father grasped onto my arm, shaking his head at me.

I growled as I tried to get out of his grip, desperately trying to find my mate. I felt tears rolling down my face, my heart crumpling inside of me. It was only a knife, it wasn't even a silver knife. Why wasn't she healing? Why was she still bleeding?

I pulled my knees up to my body as I slid down the walk, shutting my eyes in a desperate attempt to block everything out and try to listen in on the room. Try to find her heart beat, feel her breathing, something, anything.

I sat there for hours, my mother still behind the doors with Lena. Alex and John sat by me, Lena's friends no where to be found in the past few hours. I sighed as I recounted the ceiling tiles, the same stain mocking me. It looked like a cloud I noticed the day Lena started at my high school.

I smiled as I remember the shock I felt at seeing her ocean eyes hitting mine in English, a small smile playing on her lips as she strut past me. I remember her anger, that somehow turned me on, even when it shouldn't. How she was so fierce, how I was never worried about saving her; purely for the fact she could always save herself.

But right now, I wasn't so sure.

***

It was five hours.

Five.

Goddamn.

Hours.

Nothing. No one said a word to me. The silent hum was broken when that guy Lena always hung around ran in, with Mariah and their group of friends behind him. They all wore leather and black, knifes strapped to their legs and guns strapped under their arms. My eyes widened as I took them in, sweat shining against their skin.

"What the hell?" Alex shouted, his mate Mariah looking back at him with wide eyes.

Ethan glanced back to Mariah and Joseph, two other guys trailing behind them. He sighed, running his hands through his hair. "Your mother should really explain this to you with Lena, she's technically the Alpha to us."

"What the hell do you mean, Alpha?"

They simply looked around and shrugged at one another, scratching the back of their necks. I raised my eyebrows, looking back to Alex and John. They both looked just as confused as me, not sure exactly what the hell was going on. Mariah took a step towards Alex, reaching out and grabbing his hand. She pulled him closer to her, relaxing once his scent overwhelmed her.

That should be me and Lena.

That should be me and my mate.

"Im going to go explain to him, all of you guys go in her room and talk to the Queen." She tugged on his hand as she led him out of the pack hospital, the silence they left behind was deafening.

I sighed as I stood up, making my way towards her room. I peaked in to find her on her side in the bed, my mother standing next to her. Her hair was frazzled as she placed her hand on Lena's skin, a golden glow leaving her palm as she tried to heal her.

"Mom?" She snapped her hand away from Lena at the sound of my voice. She looked at the group behind me, nodding slowly as we all made our way inside.

She didn't react towards their outfits, looking over them as if it was something she saw everyday. "I'm sure you guys have questions."

John and I nodded our heads quickly, my feet inching closer to my mates pale body. "Why did she pass out from the knife, why didn't she heal?" I gripped Lena's hand, her palm cold as it rested against mine.

My mom sighed as she shook her head, glancing to Ethan and the others. "She's a hybrid, there's more to the story but I have to wait till she wakes up to really go into it."

John coughed, a look of disgust flashing over his face. It quickly disappeared when I growled at him, his head hanging low in submission. "Why the hell didn't she heal!"

"It was covered in vervain-" Ethan hissed at the mere mention of it, his eyes flashing lilac. I wrinkled my nose, another hybrid. "And something else we haven't been able to identify. Elijah thinks it's some form of poppy seeds or something."

"Who the fuck is Elijah?" I looked down to my mates wide eyes, the ocean blue I've grown to adore staring back at me.

I chuckled, leaning down as I nuzzled into the crook of her arm. "The pack doctor, we were just talking about you being a hybrid."

Lena's eyes flashed to my mother, hurt and pain obvious as she glares. "Who is my mom Ashe."

I frowned, she called my mother by her first name. I was fine with her doing that, but I didn't think I had properly introduced her to my mom, had I?

"Her name is Darla Dupree-"

"That's why the piano teacher flipped when he asked about her name!" My eyebrows raised as Lena spoke, flitting back to John.

'Find the bastard and take him to the cells. Let me torture him.'

He nodded, his eyes glazing as he mindlinked someone else. I couldn't blame him for not doing it himself, we wanted to know what the hell was goi on with my mate and his future Luna. I sat on the edge of the bed, my arms wrapping around my mate as I pulled her into me. My wolf finally relaxed for the first time in an entire day.

'She can never leave our sight again. Never ever ever ever-'

'Jake! We can't coop her up for eternity!'

I felt him snort in he back of my mind as I tried to return to the conversation, my fingers absentmindedly drawing along Lena's skin.

'That's what you think.'

I rolled my eyes as I settled into the hospital bed with her, inhaling as much of her scent as I could. She smelt of thunderstorms and freshly brewed coffee, such a weird combination but I've fallen in love with it.

"She married your father well over a thousand years ago, and had Damon close to eight-hundred years ago." Lena frowned, flashing back to me.

"How can my father be a wolf if he was alive over a thousand years ago?" She asked quietly, her white hair sprawled out around her.

"He was one of the original Lycans, he's immoral. Your mother corrupted him, she turned his heart into that of evil, along with your brother."

"Damon." I looked at her, my muscles tending at the mention of that name. "That's who stabbed me, I think he was trying to kill me."

I clutched her closer, a growl leaving my chest before I could push down my wolf. "Mine." I growled into the crook of her neck, my skin trembling as I tried to reel in Jake, my wolf.

"But the thing is, your mother is the Queen of Vampires." I jolted as my mother spoke, looking back to Lena. Her eyes were wide, almost as if she didn't believe my mom.

She smiled and started laughing, her hands wrapping around her abdomen as she sucked in air. "Yeah, okay, that's funny. Am I on Punk'd or something? Like surprise, wolves aren't real, none of this is real?"

I rolled my eyes as her sarcasm, kissing her temple. All I honestly cared about was her, as cheesy as that sounds. I never really did romance, and I regret all of those girls I would make out with.

It's just, when I turned fifteen and everyone found their mate, I got so angry. I felt like the Moon Goddess was mad at me for something I did, so I just started kissing girls. Whenever they tried to go further I always stopped them, kicking them out before they could protest or start crying. They almost always went and told their friends they slept with me, but the only person I planned on sleeping with was my mate.

"No honey, it's true. You're a hybrid, along with your other Damon. Both of you have royal blood, and that's more than likely why he's trying to kill you right now. He's taken over the throne, but once his mother finds out you're still alive you'd become the true heir." My mother looked to her sympathetically, leaning forward as she gripped her other hand.

"That's why I can do a lot of things over wolves can't..." she trailed off as she spoke, staring out into the blank space.

"Yes sweetie. Why don't we all let you get some rest?" Lena's gaze flickered to her friends, like they were having a silent conversation without us.

"What about your workout gear you have on?" John spoke up, still scrutinizing the leather they all wore.

Lena took in a deep breath besides me, looking up to catch my eye. "We're Protectors."

I looked at her quizzically, my eyes scrunched in confusion. "They're a myth, they're not real. Just folklore parents tell their children to make them stand in line."

Lena shot me a dazzling smile, tucking a piece of her whit hair behind her ear. "Uh, surprise."

I stood up from her bed, looking over Ethan. His eyes flashed under my gaze, before he hung his head slightly, showing submission. "So you're a killer."

"No! No, I mean, I've killed people before but only Rogues and bad people!" She kept telling me this but all I could see was her killing the Rogue in front of me in the forest. It all made sense, how she was so capable of stabbing someone without even a second glance.

Was she lying about everything?

"Are you really my mate?" I heard the sheets rustling after I spoke, her touch on my arm sending shock waves through my skin.

"I never lied about that, that's why you couldn't mark me. It was to protect you, it's always been about protecting you." I looked down to her, her eyes shining as she tried to get it through my thick skull.

Unfortunately, one of my worse traits I picked up from my father was my stubbornness.

"So everything was a lie? Your parents, where your from," I shook my head at her, the words drowning in the sea inside my brain.

Lie. Everything was a lie.

"No! I mean I lied about my parents but I never lied to you about you and I! I love you Tyler I really do, that wasn't a lie!"

She lied.

"Give me time to think." I slipped from her grasp and walked out the door, my heart wrenching as I heard her breathing from the room.

I left the hospital and walked to the forest, finding my way to the lake where my father fell in love with my mom. I always asked them where it was, and they always had different answers. My mother said over the piano that now rests in the library, that it use to be closed off until she brought it back to life. My father said it was at the waterfall, that he heard his heart beating so fast in front of her, he could hear it over the deafening roar of the running waters.

I don't know where I fell in love with Lena at. Maybe it was the library, the same piano my mother did.

Maybe it was the waterfall, where she would speak to me as I spoke to her for many years.

I wasn't sure of the place, or the time, but I did love her. I did love Lena, it's just every time I thought of her now, all I saw were lies.

Everything was a lie.