Maria woke up throughout the night. Declan had moved her to his bedroom and he took the couch, but whenever she awoke, he could hear her groaning in pain from the cut. Declan wanted desperately to help her, but he did not know of anything he could do. So, he sat there and listened to her through the door.

Noelle had not come back to his apartment as he had expected, but he figured that she was sharing the latest news with her family, and trying to come up with a plan. In the deep recesses of his mind, he recalled their day together, and a part of him wished that they never left the waterfall. Everything seemed so easy, so guilt free —so unlike anything that was really happening in his world.

He felt as though his problems continued to pile on top of each other, and whenever he figured out the solution to one issue, two more arose. Declan called to mind the image of the mythological Greek monster, the Hydra. He imagined that every time he removed one of the heads, two more grew in its place. He needed to find the witch so that she could help him restore his wolf. He needed to find a cure for Maria. He needed to remove Gabriel as Alpha, from his pack, and before it was too late. He needed to talk to Noelle.

And of all his issues, speaking to Noelle was the one thing he dreaded the most. He did not know how she would respond —would she understand where he was coming from? Would she be willing to wait until all this was over? Would she be angry and cut herself off from him forever?

Declan looked at his phone and saw that it was nearly seven am. It was early, but still, he couldn’t sleep any longer and he imagined that Noelle might be in the same situation. He stood up from the couch and rubbed his eyes. Grabbing his shirt from the floor, he pulled it on and headed out of the apartment.

He made his way to Noelle’s parents’ apartment and knocked at the door lightly. He waited for someone to answer it. No one came. Declan peered in the window, but he saw nothing. Perhaps it was too early and they were still sleeping. Declan pulled out his phone to send Noelle a text message to meet him outside.

Just as he was about to hit send, he heard someone walk up behind him. “She left.” It was Gabriel standing there and he was gripping tightly to a piece of paper. Declan wasn’t sure who he was referring to, so he waited. “Megan left the pack.”

“What do you mean? Why?”

And, instead of responding, Gabriel shoved the paper in Declan’s direction. Declan unfolded it carefully and read it to himself:

Gabriel,

I am sorry things ended up like this, and I am not even sure how we got to this point. But I suppose it does not matter how we got here, just that this is where we are.

I have decided to leave the pack. I cannot stay in a place that has turned so quickly from a home to a prison. I cannot stay in a place where I have to see you every day. I know the man you were, and he is gone. The man I loved is gone.

I have gone to find my family in the hopes that I might find some missing piece of myself. I hope you understand.

Megan

Declan looked up at Gabriel as he finished reading and he could see that his old friend was deeply hurt —gone was the poker face he had been wearing which hid his emotions from the world.

“I’m so sorry, Gabriel,” Declan said. He handed Gabriel the note again, and Gabriel took it into his own hands, staring at it.

“I was hoping that she would be my mate, the female alpha.” Gabriel sighed.

“Why didn’t you just tell her that? Why did you tell her that she would never be able to fulfill that role for the pack?”

Declan studied his friend’s face carefully as he bordered between anguish and anger. It occurred to Declan that this was going to be a decisive moment not only for Gabriel, but also for the pack. However, if this situation played out, it would greatly affect Gabriel’s ability to lead. He could either recognize his folly and change his ways so that he did not lose any other pack members, or he could give into his numbness entirely, and grow even more callous.

“She didn’t even write ‘Love, Megan.’ She just wrote her name.”

Gabriel lifted up the note to his face and examined her signature. A curious look passed over his face and in one swift motion, he tore the note into small, insignificant pieces, and then he let them drift to the floor.

Declan didn’t dare move or speak. Whatever Gabriel said next would be all he needed to know regarding the fate of his beloved pack.

“Well, fuck her too.”

Gabriel looked up at Declan and sneered. Declan could feel his heart falling as though he had just witnessed the final death of his friend. In this moment, he recalled Dustin’s story of the wolves which live inside each of us —whichever one we choose to feed will be the one that decides our path in life. Gabriel had made his choice.

It had been the wrong one.

* * *

Noelle sat in the back seat of the car as her parents drove to the meeting place. They had been so excited when Noelle told them that she wanted to come along. But Noelle knew that she had no intentions of helping the council —she only needed to find a way to Edmund.

The car began to slow down and Noelle looked out of the window. They pulled up in the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. The building stood at least two stories high, and the exterior paint was cracked and falling away from the building in large chunks. Many of the windows were broken, or missing completely.

“Seriously,” Noelle breathed. “Could this get any more cliché?”

“What are you talking about, Noelle?” Abigail asked, annoyed by her daughter’s reaction.

“I mean, we are meeting with some anonymous council that appears in black-hooded robes so you can’t see their faces, and so, why not meet with them in a creepy abandoned warehouse?”

“Noelle, sometimes your sarcasm gets a little old. I’m telling you.” Abigail huffed and mumbled a few other comments under her breath that Noelle didn’t care to interpret.

“Anyway, ladies. We are here, so can you both be on your best behavior?”

Garett climbed out of the car, and walked to the passenger door so he could open it for his wife. They took each other by the hand and waited for Noelle to join them, before they began walking toward the building.

“It is a little cliché, though,” Garett whispered to Noelle as they approached the doors.

Noelle flashed her father an appreciative smile, and he winked at her in return. No matter what seemed to happen in their lives, at least Noelle could always rely on him. He pulled open the door and the two women walked inside of the building. If there were any hopes that the council rebels had done up the interior, they were quickly dispelled as Noelle ran into a large spider web, right within the first few feet.

“Ugh, so freaking gross,” Noelle complained loudly. Her voice echoed down the empty hall and she grew serious as she picked up on footsteps in the distance. They grew louder and Noelle could feel her skin prickling.

The figure grew larger and to Noelle’s astonishment, Megan appeared from the shadows. She looked much better than the last time Noelle had seen her, which in all honesty, had only been two days ago. She no longer had the dark bags under her eyes and she had her hair pulled up in a neat pony tail. It sat at the top of her head. She was wearing dark denim jeans and a simple black t-shirt.

“Hey,” Megan said.

She walked up to Noelle first and gave her a big hug. She then went to her aunt and uncle and did the same. Noelle stared at her cousin. Megan had never been one to show affection like this —her hugs had always felt forced and consisted of slinging one arm around your shoulders and squeezing once.

“What have they done to you?” Noelle whispered.

Megan laughed at her cousin, and with a wide smile she said, “Noelle, we have a lot to talk about. But first, they want to meet you.”

Megan took Noelle by the hand and led her down the hall. No one spoke as they navigated their way through the building. Noelle glanced into the different rooms as they passed by, and she noticed that once they reached the second floor, there was a long, hallway carpet.

“Finally, some interior décor to liven this place up,” Noelle murmured. Megan looked at her cousin and gave a small laugh.

They walked toward the end of the hallway and reached a closed door. Megan knocked twice and it was pulled open. The four of them walked inside of the room and it seemed as though they had been transported into another space, altogether. From the center of the room hung an elaborate chandelier which gleamed stunningly and cast a bright light over the large space. The floor was the same greyish concrete, but they had placed lavish carpets over it, made of deep reds and extravagant designs. Noelle felt as though she had stepped into some royal chamber from an ancient past.

“Ah, there you are,” a voice called out from the other end of the room.

Noelle had to squint her eyes, just to differentiate a figure from the shadowy corner. The figure stood from its crouching position and walked slowly to where the four of them stood.

“Noelle, hey!” Noelle’s focus was not pulled from the mysterious figure as Edmund approached her. She did not look at him until he stood directly in front of her. “Hey,” he said again.

“Edmund,” Noelle said coolly. She tried to look around him to get a better look at the figure that was approaching them, but he shifted his stance to completely block her view.

“I’m glad you decided to come,” Edmund said quietly. “I think we should talk about a few things.”

Noelle shook her head at him and said, “I would like to meet these council people, now. I can deal with you later.” She pushed past him and almost ran smack into an older man who was standing behind Edmund.

“Noelle,” the man said. She shivered as he spoke.

The man looked as though he might just fall over at any moment —he was frail and his skin so pale, it almost looked translucent. He had wisps of gray hair on the top of his head which possibly boasted a full head of hair, once upon a time. His hands shook slightly as he reached out to Noelle. But that was not what sent shivers down her spine. The man looking at her had eyes of such a pure blue, but he had no pupils. It was as though staring into his eyes, she could easily get lost with no way out.

“Who are you?” Noelle asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

The man smiled at her and she noticed that his teeth were yellowed and rotting. The very sight of him repulsed her in every way. It was as though he was a walking and talking corpse —but those eyes captivated her.

“We should save formal introductions for later. For now, you can refer to me as Mr. Sanders. As you have already come to find, Noelle, we are a rebel faction of the council men. We do not share the same goals as them, any longer. While they are focused on the total destruction of the werewolves, we offer something else entirely. We offer the restoration of humanity. We offer hope.”

Noelle shook her head in an effort to break their gaze. “Yes,” she nodded as she spoke, “but at what cost? If they deny your offer, then they fall to the same fate.”

The man known as Mr. Sanders narrowed his eyes at her as she spoke. “So,” he said in a faint voice so no one else could hear him, “I see you have come to care for their kind. Or perhaps, there is just one wolf that occupies your mind?”

Now it was Noelle’s turn to narrow her eyes. “I have come to care for all of them. Becoming a werewolf does not change who you are, it only enhances what you are capable of accomplishing.”

“Ah, is that so?”

The man nodded thoughtfully, and then he snapped his fingers twice. Noelle noticed that he didn’t seem as fragile as when she’d first entered the room.

A young man walked silently up to Mr. Sanders and waited for him to speak. “Thomas, bring the files to show Miss Noelle here.” The man disappeared and came back a few moments later, carrying three large files. He placed them on the floor in front of Noelle’s feet.

“What is this?” Noelle asked.

The old man gestured for her to open the box, and she did. She removed the lid and reached inside of the box, pulling out a handful of large envelopes. She peered into the box and noticed that there were hundreds more. Noelle assumed that she would only find more in the other two boxes that Thomas had set down before her.

She opened the envelope and pulled out photographs of a young girl who was lying dead in the grass. There was such a large gash in her shoulder that her arm was nearly ripped from the rest of her body. Noelle could feel the bile rising in her throat as she looked down at the girl. She turned the picture over and read:

Noelle placed the photograph of the girl back inside of the envelope and opened the second one. The body of an older man was sprawled on the ground with his head laying a few feet away, completely torn off. Noelle learned that this man was 53 years old and his name was Declan Hall.

She looked up at the older man who was studying her with a curious expression. He nodded as though answering her unspoken question.

“Yes,” he said quietly, “this was Declan’s father. Killed mercilessly by a werewolf when the boy was just a child, forcing him to grow up without a father.”

Noelle shook her head in disbelief. This couldn’t be happening. All of these envelopes held the evidence of countless murders by werewolves. She had learned in her hunting school that they were beasts who were programmed to kill, but after spending time with them, she had forgotten what they were truly capable of.

What she, herself, was now capable of. Noelle felt a wave of sudden dizziness crash down upon her and she felt as though the world slipped out from underneath her. She fell to the side, but before she could feel the pain, she lost consciousness of everything around her.

* * *

Declan sat with Maria at his table in the kitchen. She sipped at a cup of tea he had prepared for her, but he could tell that she was exhausted, and in pain.

“Anything yet?” she asked him.

Declan shook his head. He had waited by her parents’ apartment, but no one came out. Finally, he had decided to go to his office and retrieve his master key. He walked back to their apartment and unlocked the door. It didn’t take long for him to realize that they had all left. He had called Noelle and sent her a million messages asking what was happening, and where everyone had gone off to, but she hadn’t answered him.

Declan slammed his mug down on the table, spilling his scalding beverage on his own hand. “Fuck!” he yelled out.

He exhaled a huge breath of air and maneuvered his way to the sink, to run cool water on the burn. Maria studied him carefully as he let the water run over his hand.

“Declan?” Maria asked quietly. “Why do you love her so much?”

Declan turned off the water and patted his hand dry with a towel before he turned to look at Maria. He shrugged slightly and said, “It’s difficult to put into words. I just —when I am with her, everything feels like it will be okay, even when the world around us is crumbling into pieces. She makes me feel strong, no, even more than that, she makes me feel invincible. I know her, Maria. I know her heart and she is a good person. She fights for what she believes is right.”

Maria nodded as he spoke and a small smile came across her face. “Declan?” Declan looked up at her and waited for her to continue. “If what you say is true, and she is truly a good person… and someone who fights for what she believes in, then do not waste your time worrying about her. She is probably trying to do the right thing, right now.”

Declan considered Maria’s words as she spoke and a realization slowly dawned on him. Maria was right —that’s exactly what Noelle was doing, which could only mean she was with one person.

Edmund.

“Fate is just that.”