Declan reached out for Maria’s hand and pulled her into a tight embrace. He looked at Noelle and sent her off to get Gabriel. Noelle raised her eyebrows at him, but said nothing before she left to retrieve him.

“Let’s go,” Declan said.

He tried to steady her with his arm, but she had grown so weak that he decided to carry her, instead. As he picked her up into his arms, Maria gazed at him and smiled, but he missed the fullness of it which captivated him the first night they had met.

He struggled to carry her up the steps, but they eventually made it to his apartment where Gabriel and Noelle were waiting. Declan passed Maria to Gabriel and fished out his keys from his pocket. He opened the door and the four of them passed inside, where Gabriel laid her on the couch.

“Gabriel,” Declan said, “this is Maria. She is the alpha female from a pack just north of here. They were fleeing their home today, due to the hunters that were threatening them. That introduction will have to suffice for now.” Declan turned his gaze to Maria who was now shivering on the couch. He laid a hand gently on her shoulder. “Maria, what happened out there?”

“We were leaving,” Maria started to explain. She started coughing and when she moved her hands from her lips, Declan saw blood there. He looked up at Noelle and they shared a glance. “We were leaving and we had just burned the remnants of everything that we couldn’t carry with us. Dustin was in the front, and I was taking up the rear. I can’t explain it, Declan. It was so awful. They just —they just came out of nowhere. Hundreds of them, I swear to you. They surrounded us and I couldn’t move. I didn’t know what was going on —no one was moving. But then, I heard the most terrible yell, and I knew.”

Maria closed her eyes as she recalled the story and Declan saw the tears begin spilling from her eyes. His heart grew heavy, fearing what she was about to say.

“I knew that it was Dustin. They had done something to him —the rest of the pack just started attacking the hunters and they shot at us from every angle. It was a massacre. I tried to help, I killed about five of them, I think. But every pack member —I was too late. It was that silver you told us about. Oh, Declan. Their bodies —just…” Maria sucked in a huge breath of air. “It was horrible.”

Declan looked down at Maria’s bloody shirt and hands, and tried to determine whether the blood had come from the others, or whether she had been injured as well.

He reached down to the hem of her shirt and asked, “May I?”

She smiled at him weakly and laughed. “It wouldn’t be the first time.” Declan swallowed as she let that comment pass from her lips and he refused to look at Noelle to see her reaction. He lifted her shirt gently and saw what he dreaded most. A small cut slashed across her abdomen. It was already purplish and beginning to show signs of infection.

“Declan.” Noelle walked up to them and looked down at the cut on Maria’s stomach. “This didn’t kill her because she is an alpha, right? So, we have time.”

“Time for what?” Maria asked before becoming seized with another coughing fit. Declan looked at Noelle, and a knowing glance passed between them.

“No,” Declan said, his voice resuming his authoritative tone, “we cannot trust him.”

Gabriel finally stepped up and asked, “Trust who? What’s going on?”

“Edmund.” Noelle sighed, not looking away from Declan. “He’s our only chance. When he explained to us about the council, he admitted to me that he really had developed a cure for silver before. He even said that he had a few bottles here, I just don’t know which ones they are, and I don’t want to give her the wrong thing.”

“Wait a second, you mean to tell me that the crazy doctor guy who kidnapped us is still around here, somewhere? And we haven’t killed him yet?” Gabriel looked pissed, with his tone dangerously low.

“It’s complicated, Gabriel. Had you not been so preoccupied with turning this pack into a bunch of militants, maybe we could have had time to explain this to you!” Noelle shouted.

“Yeah, and by the looks of your friend here,” Gabriel said as he nodded in Maria’s direction, “I’d say I made the right call.”

“We don’t have time for this right now,” Declan said, bringing their attention back to the matter at hand. He looked at Maria who had faded into sleep, and then back at Noelle. “How do you know we can trust him?”

“Because, I have something that they want,” Noelle said quietly.

Declan weighed her words carefully. He knew that she was suggesting offering herself to the council, but at what risk? It was clear that they wanted her blood to keep creating these so-called, “cures” for the werewolves to take. But Declan also knew that if Noelle continued this way without giving in to either side, she would die.

“No,” he said finally. “It’s too risky. We will just have to find another way.” Noelle crossed her arms over her chest and pursed her lips together, but she did not press him further.

She nodded slightly and then said, “Well, I think that you two have a lot to catch up on here. I’ll go to my parents’ place now and see if there is anything we can come up with.”

Declan nodded at her and watched as she left the apartment. There was a brief moment where he remembered the feeling of her hand pressed against his lips, and when the door closed, the memory faded from his mind.

“Okay, Declan,” Gabriel said as he took a seat on the chair across from the couch where Maria was laying. “So, what’s really going on now?”

Declan sighed and then explained to Gabriel everything that had happened since the night of the ritual. The night when Declan discovered that he could not transform into his wolf. When he described the meeting of the alphas, he saw Gabriel’s eyes grow more curious, but Declan pressed on. He finished by explaining Dustin and Maria’s plan for their pack to relocate.

“I guess that is when the hunters chose to attack,” Declan said, looking at Maria and grimacing at the cut.

It hadn’t changed, but Declan recalled what Cassidy had gone through, and he already instinctively knew how much pain and anguish this would cause Maria. Especially if they didn’t find a cure. Declan looked at Gabriel and tried to judge his thoughts, but he had no expression, as though the entire story had no effect on him. None whatsoever.

“Tell me more about this meeting of the alphas,” Gabriel sneered. “Because it seems odd to me that I am the alpha of this pack and yet somehow, I missed the memo.”

“I already told you, Gabriel,” Declan said patiently. “I don’t know how it works or what exactly happened. He just spoke in their minds. It sounds crazy, I know.” Declan took special care not to mention the fact that although he was technically not the alpha anymore, he still received the message himself.

Gabriel smiled at Declan, but Declan knew that he wasn’t happy, at all. “Well, I guess I should thank you for filling me in on all of this valuable information,” Gabriel said finally as he stood up from his chair. “But, I hope you know that this doesn’t change anything.”

“What do you mean?” Declan asked warily.

“I am still the alpha of this pack, Declan.” Gabriel walked toward the door, and before he pulled it open to leave, he turned back to Declan and added, “And this changes nothing regarding the plans that I have for this pack. We will not be moving anywhere. We will stay here and train as I said before. If the hunters ever come to us, you better be damn sure that we will be ready to take them all on.” Gabriel pulled open the door and walked outside, slamming it closed behind him.

Declan knelt on the floor next to the couch where Maria was laying and put his head against her arm. He felt the coolness of her skin and replayed her story in his head. Words popped out at him as if he was reading a horror comic —massacre, terrible, Dustin.

Declan thought of Dustin and what it would take to make him scream, and he suddenly became certain that he had been killed. Declan rolled his hand into a fist and threw it against the floor in a sudden rush of anger. The skin of his knuckles split and blood started dripping from his hand. He looked at it and grimaced as he was reminded (yet again) of the limits of humanity.

He could never live like this. What was he thinking when he agreed with Noelle that they could just hide away together, and start a family? He already had a family —his pack. And now was when they needed him the most.

* * *

Noelle found her parents in their apartments and they were both packing their bags. Megan was nowhere to be found. When Noelle walked in, they both looked up at her guiltily.

“What’s going on?” Noelle asked. “Where are you all going?”

“Noelle,” her father said calmly as he took a few steps toward her, “why don’t you sit down for a moment?”

Noelle didn’t quite feel like sitting, but she did as he suggested and waited patiently for them to explain why they were packing up.

“The council reached out to us again today, Noelle,” Garett said slowly as though he was afraid that Noelle might explode at any moment. “They told your mother and I —well, they said…” Garett trailed off, unable to bring himself to finish his sentence.

Abigail stepped up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “They offered us the cure, Noelle.”

Noelle stared at her parents as they watched her to see exactly how she reacted. She surprised them both by bursting into laughter.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Noelle squeaked out finally.

Her mother narrowed her eyes at her daughter, clearly not at all amused by her daughter’s behavior. “This isn’t a laughing matter, Noelle. They offered us the cure and we are going to take it.”

Noelle stopped laughing as she saw the serious expression on both of her parents’ faces. “I don’t understand,” Noelle said slowly. “When I explained the cure to you all, none of you were remotely interested in taking it. You had all just accepted your new lives. What changed?”

Garett, finding his voice again, started speaking, “That was when we believed that those who had already transformed couldn’t be reverted back, which meant that I could not be turned back.” He looked up at his wife and smiled softly. “Noelle, now that we know that we can be human again, we have made the decision to choose that life. Your mother and I —we have no desire to live forever. We just want simple lives, together.”

Noelle studied her father carefully as he spoke. She knew that he was speaking honestly, but she couldn’t help but feel that there was more that he was not sharing with her.

“So, does this mean you are both just going to resume your life as hunters? Pick up right where you left off?”

“Oh, heavens no!” Abigail laughed. “No, we are done with all of this, for good. We explained this to this council, and that they should not expect us to help them in any way, or to return this favor from them.”

“And they were fine with that? So, this is just a freebie?”

“Well, Edmund spoke up for us quite vehemently, I must say. He explained that we had already done more than enough during our time as hunters, and therefore, we should be free to take this cure with no expectations from them. They agreed to it.”

Noelle cringed at the way her mother said Edmund’s name —it was as though they had completely forgiven him for the atrocities he had committed. And not only to her, but to Megan, and Gabriel, and worst of all, Declan. Her father looked at her with a curious expression.

“What else?” Noelle asked.

Abigail opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Garett patted her hand and said, “They offered something similar to your cousin, Megan.”

“Megan?” Noelle whispered.

She thought back, at how much Megan had seemed to love her new life here. She had finally found a place where she fit in. That’s how she had explained it to Noelle. She had found Gabriel. S

Suddenly, Noelle knew exactly why Megan would choose to take the cure. “Surely, she wouldn’t give this all up, just because of a fight with Gabriel?”

“No,” her father shook his head in response. “She was quite upset about all of that, but Megan doesn’t act very often on pure emotion.”

“I don’t understand then. Why would Megan choose to take the cure?”

Garett looked down at his hands and tapped his fingers nervously against his knee. “Well,” he sighed, “they told her that they knew the truth about her family. That if she took the cure, they would help her find them.”

Noelle’s mouth dropped open as his words sunk in. Megan could finally find her family and find out exactly what had happened to her as a child.

“But what about Aunt Marjorie?” Noelle asked.

“You know your aunt,” her father said. “Wherever Megan goes, that’s where she goes. Your cousin and uncle have gone as well.”

“So,” Noelle spoke slowly as the realization dawned on her, “everyone is human again. My entire family will be human again.”

“Yes,” Abigail said anxiously. “We don’t want you to worry, dear. Edmund has explained to us already what the council will need from you, and it is only to support their cause. It really is not such a horrible thing, Noelle. You are offering these people a chance at life again.”

“And did he also explain to you, that if I do not choose to be a wolf or to be a human soon, that I will probably die?”

Garett lowered his head, but Noelle already knew the answer. Edmund had told them the truth about everything.

“Edmund said,” Garett said, as he coughed uncomfortably, “that once it became apparent that you could not handle it anymore, that he would give you the cure. You could be human again, like us, and we can live normal lives, together.”

Noelle could not bring herself to speak. She looked at her parents and wondered what she would have decided if the tables had been turned. They had lived their entire lives believing that these creatures —beasts —were malicious and hell-bent on tearing apart the human population. But now, after living with them… as them, they had concluded that they all deserved a chance at a new life.

Her father stood up from his seat and walked into the other room where they silently resumed their packing. Noelle watched them wordlessly. She thought about Maria and the destruction that hunters had brought to her pack. And in that moment, Noelle realized the truth.

They had not been terrorizing Maria and Dustin’s pack in search of Noelle. Not as Dustin had suggested at the meeting of the alphas. No, they already knew exactly where she was.

This massacre —this was the beginning of the cleansing.

As Noelle’s parents zipped up their belongings, her father walked up to her and planted a small kiss on her forehead.

“We are leaving now, Noelle,” he said softly. Her mother gave her a small wave and walked to the door. She reached for the handle on the door and was just about to pull it open when Noelle sprang up from the couch.

“Wait,” Noelle said, “I’m coming with you.”

“He already had a family —his pack. And now is when they needed him most.”