"What? No!"

"You have to, don't you see? You're the Alpha's mate now. The responsibility of protecting this pack falls on you as much as it falls on Galen."

"Until the pack splits, Elam is Alpha. Emma is Alpha's mate. And besides, this doesn't even make sense. Why would I kill Emma? She's my friend."

"We won't have to split at all if you fix this, you idiot. Emma's death will kill Elam, and the entire pack can stay here, with Galen ruling, as it should be. Galen wants to go to the adjoining lands? Where I was a slave, and raped? To bow down to Elam and leave? Never! Don't you see? Killing her fixes everything."

Kate rushed over, putting herself between Emma and Ziva.

"I won't do it! If I had known what you were planning, I never would have helped you. You said you wanted to talk to her. I thought you wanted to apologize for how you acted when Elam became Alpha, and make up. I thought we were going to go to the pack meeting all together, as a united front, to help Elam and Galen split the pack on good terms."

Emma had forgotten about the pack meeting. She wondered how long she'd been unconscious. Had the meeting started yet? Did the men realize they were missing?

She looked up toward the cracks in the cave's ceiling. Judging by the darkening of the cave and the color of the light she could see, it would be dark soon.

When the three didn't show up for the pack meeting, everyone would know something had happened.

She closed her eyes and tried to 'throw' visions at Elam. She knew Kate and Galen spoke in words in their heads, but so far she and Elam had only spoken like that in pictures. Even then, the images only went one way. She had no reason to think Elam would 'see' her here, but she tried anyway.

"Kate. Do that thing where you talk to Galen. They will come for us."

Kate didn't seem to hear her, she was too busy facing off against Ziva.

The pair stood toe to toe, Ziva yelling things at Kate, trying to get Kate to kill Emma.

"I didn't do everything I've done for it to fall apart now!"

"Are you kidding?" Kate yelled back at Ziva, right up in her face. "You did everything you've done because you're fucking insane!"

Ziva slapped Kate so fast Emma heard the sound ricochet off the cave walls before she ever saw Ziva's hand raise.

"Don't you dare call me that!"

"It's true! You haven't been normal for a very long time, I'd guess. Maybe Thomas still being alive helped you some. Maybe no one ever looked that close, but it shines in your eyes, Ziva. The lights may be on, but there is definitely no one home."

That pushed Ziva over whatever edge she still clung to.

Ziva leapt at Kate, pushing her down on the cave floor.

Emma tried to pull out of her leather ties, but she was bound well. She could get to her knees, but with her ankles also bound, she could only scoot toward the pair and try to club Ziva with her fists, and pull Ziva's clothes and hair with her hands.

Kate rolled out from under Ziva, trying to get to her feet and run for the cave's entrance, but the desperate insanity driving Ziva made her quick as hell.

Ziva beat Kate to the entrance, but instead of leaving she bent down, grabbing the tree limb Emma had brought into the cave when she'd explored it the first time.

Ziva turned back toward the two women, holding the limb like a baseball bat.

She eyed both Kate and Emma warily for a few heartbeats, while she caught her breath. A stony, detached calm suddenly replaced the anger and venom in Ziva's face.

She addressed Kate first.

"Fine. Obviously you aren't Alpha mate material, and you certainly aren't good enough for my Galen. I guess I'll just have to kill both of you."

It was the sudden switch to calm and calculating that really scared Emma.

When Ziva stepped toward Kate, starting to swing the branch with a deadly precision aimed at Kate's head, Emma channeled all her fear and rage into protecting Kate.

The leather ties binding her human wrists and ankles were suddenly no match for a shifter growing and expanding into a wolf.

Emma put her new and still not quite totally controlled wolf between Kate and Ziva, growling, snarling and showing her teeth.

Ziva's eyes narrowed at Emma.

"You can shift. I thought maybe you could, but I wasn't sure. I came prepared for it though."

Ziva tossed the branch aside, and reached behind her back, pulling out a small pistol and aiming it at Emma.

Kate tried to grab the abandoned branch, but the movement drew Ziva's eyes and the barrel of the gun swung with her gaze. Ziva's finger pulled the trigger and Emma leapt.

Emma felt a heavy thud hit her shoulder as she jumped in front of Kate. With Kate behind her now, safe, she turned, aimed and leapt again, this time for Ziva's throat.

She felt another thud crash into her underbelly as she opened her jaws wide, finding and sinking her teeth into the tender flesh of Ziva's neck. She tugged and jerked, instinct and the drive to protect Kate driving any rational thoughts from her wolf brain.

She fought a now lifeless Ziva still, thrashing her like she'd seen dogs do when they were playing tug-of-war with their pull toys.

She didn't hear Kate's screams right beside her, and paid no attention to the yanks of fur and punches from Kate's tiny little fists as she tried to get Emma to stop.

No, Emma heard nothing but the pounding of her own blood in her ears, until the hostile growls of two newly arriving wolves broke though her reality.

She dropped her prey and turned toward the new growls. She recognized both Elam and Galen's wolves as they faced her, growling, and slowly approaching her step by step.

Kate's yells broke through to Emma's ears, and she suddenly realized how this must look. Risking the fact that she wouldn't be able to defend herself against two wolves, she shifted back into her human form, to explain.

As soon as any trace of her wolf form left her, and she stood there naked and human, she felt the pain ripping through her body.

She opened her mouth to explain, raising her hands palms out to speak, but her one arm wouldn't obey.

She looked down at herself, confused, and saw herself covered in blood. She'd been shot, not once but twice.

She raised her face to ask the wolves what had happened to her, but collapsed in a dead faint at their paws instead.