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p u l s e

I WAS STILL sobbing when Jed pulled me back up.

Losing Dimitri was like losing Spike all over again, only far more painful, because I knew for a fact that Dimitri had given up his life to save mine. He'd said far too often that he had no loyalty to anyone, no Luna. But he'd called me his and I knew it. I just didn't say it, but for the longest time, I had the gut feeling that I'd somehow won over his loyalty the night I refused to let Titan make him a prisoner. And I had a feeling that he knew too that after losing Spike, he'd become the one person I trusted and relied on the most after Jed.

The fact that he was gone now was devastating.

Jed patiently held me, his arms wrapped tightly around my shaking frame and his lips pressed gently to the side of my head. His fingers traced soothing patterns on the small of my back and the mere action alone, coupled with the way I felt entirely safe with him, was comforting.

Hearing the occasional howl still echo in the background and remembering that the fight was still very, very much ongoing, I hastily brushed my tears away with the back of my hand. "I'm okay," I assured him, when I saw the way he was staring worriedly at me. He looked exhausted and beaten, but still seemed more concern about my wellbeing than his own. "We should go."

He nodded and slowly climbed to his feet, biting his lip to keep from flinching. I was guessing it had to be the bruises on his ribs, but he held out his hand for me to take before I could worry about him, and pulled me up. We made swift work, striding quickly across the now empty room and only pausing to pick up my knife along the way. Jed picked up several of Dimitri's, and I pushed aside the pang in my chest when I thought about how bravely he'd defended us earlier.

I kept close to him as we headed down the stairs, keeping close to the sides. Jed's eyes were sharp, even if his energy seemed sapped, and he didn't let down his guard. We were still in the midst of descending the second flight of stairs when Jed suddenly froze, instinctively pushing me behind him.

Then he fell a step back. Placing a palm on the small of my back, he urged me back up the stairs. Before long, we were back in the same room. Jed glanced round the room, taking in the low ceiling and dim light by the pillar, the unlocked chains strewn on the floor. Nothing else. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run.

In the middle of the dimly lit room, he pulled me swiftly towards him and dropped a quick kiss to my lips. It was fleeting but it was bittersweet, and I could taste the blood from the cut on his lip, but his taste drowned out everything else when he swept his tongue across the crevice between my lips, his fingers sliding up to rest against my cheeks.

"I'll keep you safe," He said quietly, his lips brushing mine as he spoke, his green eyes meeting mine unwaveringly. "I promise."

I nodded, because I never had any doubt that it was true, and took a deep breath. I was scared, terrified, and I knew that Jed felt the same way. But there were times when you couldn't keep running. Monsters you had to face once and for all. The time was now. The footsteps were nearing and Jed stood in front of me, his posture entirely defensive, eyes steadily fixed on the stairs as he waited.

Then a chilling voice broke the silence.

"Brother." Malthus Trevino reached that final few steps, his black eyes glinting in the shadows. He was just as I remembered – that straight nose and strong jaw that looked a lot like Jed's, but his eyebrows were set too close, the brevity in his eyes hard, grim, wicked. The sinister smile playing on his lips stretched when he saw us, my ashen face and Jed's emotionless one. I didn't think he missed the fear in our eyes at all. "It's been awhile."

It wasn't until he said that when I realised that Jed hadn't met Malthus during his earlier period of capture. The thought of that was strangely relieving, but it didn't last long, especially when I saw the six men that trailed after Malthus. Four of them were clearly just rogues from Prometheus.

Lance and Giles were the other two.

Everything that Jed had told me about mind-linking came rushing back. This must've been why neither of them could be reached. Because somehow, amidst all the struggling and fighting and surviving that they'd done, they'd lost. Jed was no longer their Alpha.

And Malthus was.

Jed and I stood in frozen horror as we saw the decrepit states of Lance and Giles. Giles looked exhausted, bags under his eyes and the occasional scar peppering his skin here and there. When he saw Jed, there was a vague flicker of recognition, but it was quickly replaced by a look of complete hostility and suspicion. Lance, on the other hand, had his head lowered, his shoulders hunched, like he'd taken far too many beatings to even have a sliver of a fighting spirit left in him.

"You know, brother, I have to say – you do have an eye for picking the strong ones," Malthus was saying, in a manner that sounded far too conversational and calm to be true. "These two put up quite a good fight before we finally broke them in."

Jed stiffened so obviously that Malthus laughed.

"Not in that way. That kind of special treatment from our father and I was only reserved for you."

He smirked when Jed's fists clenched. Jed was furious, that much I knew. But there was fear too, when it came to a monster of his past that he finally had to face, and it slowly but surely pricked at him. Then Malthus turned his cool gaze to me, and I immediately braced myself, feeling Jed surreptitiously tuck me closer to him.

"And you." Malthus smiled almost pleasantly, such a sudden, eerie switch that made a chill race down my spine. "Did you enjoy my lair?"

I froze.

"Nice place, isn't it?" He shook his head at me in silent mirth when I kept frightfully still. "I don't usually let people in – apart from the ones I keep there, of course; but you, you had the best reaction of all."

My mind worked rapidly at his words, my fingers instinctively tightening around Jed's as I felt a surge of anger pulse through me. "You let me in on purpose," I said at last, my voice tight and strained as I remembered the traumatic experience of setting foot into that room. "You wanted me to see that?"

"Of course," He returned smoothly, flicking an amused glance at Jed, who was still standing stiffly. "I needed someone to let my brother know that our father's legacy was still operating. And who better to tell him that than you?"

It was all a ploy from the beginning and I was almost angry with myself for not having seen it coming. Escaping had been far easier than expected, not to mention the fact that I'd managed to leave with Bianca, but I had all along thought that Dimitri had everything to do with it. Clearly, it wasn't just that.

Malthus had let himself be played. Let us think that we were outsmarting him so that we would let our guard down. By letting Jed know about that Claudius's legacy was still in operation, Malthus was effectively toying with Jed's greatest fear. He wanted Jed to know, wanted Jed to be terrified, wanted Jed to fear him.

And I'd played my role in his plans perfectly.

"You're a monster," I breathed, but even as the words slipped past my lips, I already knew how absolutely redundant they were.

"Oh, I am." Malthus fell an unexpected step back and raised his hand. With a sinking heart, I realised that he was gesturing towards Lance and Giles, who had both begun to shift at his signal. "But then, so are they."

Jed tensed and pushed me behind him, before he shifted. The change was far swifter than Lance's or Giles's, bones cracking and resizing until he was a mass of black fur standing in front of me, posture rigid and snarling a warning at the two wolves approaching him. I recognised Lance's wolf form immediately – the same shade of brown that Lorraine's was, while Giles was the bigger one, a blend of matted brown and grey.

It didn't matter that they were part of Titan now – their wolves had accepted a new Alpha and judging by the loyalty that most wolves went by, I had no doubt that they would be willing to fight Jed to the death if the situation called for it. Jed, on the other hand, was entirely on the defensive. He kept them firmly away from me, but seemed reluctant to make a move that would hurt either of them.

Malthus watched the scene unfold with a sadistic smile on his face and gestured towards the other guards remaining. Two of them began to shift, and I tensed when I realised that they were about to join in the fight. But before they could, someone made the first move.

The brown form of Lance unexpectedly twisting away and then sidling up to Jed made everyone freeze in surprise. It took me a few seconds to figure out what had happened, but I felt relief sweep through me when I realised that Lance was no longer growling at Jed. His were far more alert than they'd been mere seconds ago, and he gave a warning snap when one of the guards lunged too close to him.

Animal, human. I could remember everything that Jed said perfectly, and it all made sense now when I saw it happen. If you pushed your mind hard enough, you could overcome even your animal instincts.

"Useless," was all Malthus said, his words spitting like venom from his lips. He watched, bored, as Lance growled up at him; and raised a hand to signal the last two guards who stood by his side. "Kill them all."

The guards nodded, but I froze when I realised that one of them was headed towards me. One of the wolves suddenly pounced on Jed, and I quickly took a step forward, just as Lance and the remaining two wolves joined in the scuffle. Giles, on the other hand, veered towards me as well, and my heart leapt to my throat when I realised that they were corralling me away from the fight, and into a new one where I was on my own.

Through it all, Malthus watched with steady, almost unblinking dark eyes. My fingers tightened around the knife in my hand, keeping the weapon hidden behind my back. And when the final guard tried to grab me into a headlock, I didn't hesitate. With an upward slash, I ripped a thin line through his arm and felt the blood splatter across my face as he yelled in pain and twisted away. But Giles snapped his jaw threateningly at me and I yelped, taking a horrified step away from him, just as he lunged at me.

The nails along his paws were sharp and all but dug into my shoulders when we tumbled to the ground, and I spliced the knife blindly up, felt him duck and another snap of his jaw that I barely evaded. Tears of horror were leaking from the corners of my eyelids now, blurring my vision but all I could focus on was staying alive, even as the other guard reached out to grab me again.

Before he could, there was an agonising crunch as a dark mass of fur lunged at him, sinking its jaws into his leg before pulling him away from me. Jed viciously tugged him aside, forcing the man engage in a fight that Jed and Lance were already up to their necks in – a mess of howling and scuffling and growls until I couldn't tell one apart from the other.

That left me with Giles. And I didn't want to kill him, really I didn't, but I was acting on instinct right now. He snapped at my wrist before I could slash the knife at him, his sharp teeth coming so close to my skin that I was forced the drop the knife, where it clattered far away out of my reach. With one large paw pressed against my chest, he had me pinned down and was just about to sink his jaws into my throat when I caught a glimpse of onyx in the corner of my eye.

I didn't even think. I reached a hand up to my pendant, twisted the curve blade out, and rammed it straight into Giles's left shoulder.

With a wretched howl, he yanked himself away from me as though he'd touched an open flame, collapsing heavily on his side. He fell half over me and I hastily pushed him aside. "I'm sorry, Giles," I whispered, quickly dislodging the blade from his shoulder and trying not to wince when I felt a gush of steady blood flow from his wound. Without the silver in his blood, I knew that this would just scar, as it had when I first stabbed Jed. "But stay down."

Ignoring my bloody palms and scrapped knees, I scrambled to my feet. But just as I straightened, a large arm hooked around my neck in a vice-like grip that left me floundering, a terrified shriek escaping my lips as I realised that it was Malthus who'd finally joined in the fight.

"You're a feisty little thing, aren't you?" He mused, as he dragged me to the balcony, his breath hot against my ear in a way that made me shiver out of sheer terror. He was a snake and I was the prey he was slowly squeezing the life out of with one arm. I bit back a whimper when he yanked the pendant away from my neck, snapping the chain with violently and smirking when he saw the terrified look on my face. "Almost regret not playing with you when you were in my little den – "

The words had barely left his lips when a heavy force rammed against him. He toppled right off balance, dragging me down with him onto the floor with one arm still tight around my neck. I heard a sharp snap, a crunch of sharp teeth against fragile skin, then jagged teeth against crumbled bones just right by my ear that left me paralysed for a moment in horror.

It wasn't until I heard Malthus's yell, and felt his arm loosen around my neck that I realised that Jed had been the one to intervene. Blood gushed forth from the wound Jed had inflicted on him, a clean chunk bitten off Malthus's arm to save my life, and I hastily scrambled away during the lull, feeling Jed press against me to push me aside as he placed a firm distance between Malthus and me. A dead wolf's body was barely a few feet away from me, another one near the stairs, while Giles lay in a motionless heap by the corner of the room.

I pushed myself up and tried to help Jed, only to be deterred when one of the remaining wolves blocked my line of vision, snarling and growling lowly at me. Lance was by my side in a flash, but so was the other wolf, and the two of us were being slowly but steadily backed into a corner.

I kept one eye fixed on the snarling wolves, who didn't seem to want to attack us. Not yet, at least, just to hold us at bay so that Malthus and Jed could have their fight. And Jed was circling the man he once feared. He seemed to fear him even now, keeping a wary distance from him, ears pricked and eyes sharp as he calculated Malthus's every move.

Because Malthus wasn't anything to take lightly. Human instinct, Jed had told me, and he was right. Instead of shifting into his wolf the way the others did in a fight, he chose instead to stay as he was, brandishing a silver knife of his own in his good hand as he faced Jed. He fought not merely with his instincts but with his head, and he faked several moves that left Jed faltering, almost getting a quick stab in on two opportune moments when he took Jed by surprise.

"Do you remember this knife?" Malthus said to Jed, a sinister chuckle slipping past his lips as he easily evaded one of Jed's attacks. "Our father used this on multiple occasions and as long as we were patient enough – you'd cave."

Jed stilled. I could see all the way from here that Malthus's words had instilled even more fear in him, see the way his green eyes wavered, his paw track a step back as he faltered.

Malthus shook his head, and the look on his face was grave now, the shadows encasing him within until he was a perfect blend with them. "You always fought so hard, Jedediah, and that was what made you our favourite toy. You could say that in our own twisted way, we even loved you – "

The sentence froze on his tongue when Jed suddenly lunged forward without any warning. Locking his jaws around Malthus's wrist, he snapped down on it so hard that I heard a terrible crunch. Malthus dropped the knife with a scream and hit out at Jed with the other hand, but Jed easily evaded and rammed against him, knocking him right off balance.

In the blink of an eye, Jed had Malthus pinned to the ground, razor-sharp teeth inches away from his neck as he growled down at him, one paw pressed tightly against his throat and the other pushing down on his chest.

A blend of resignation and malevolence flitted across Malthus's face as he stared up at Jed. "Go ahead," Malthus said to Jed, a smirk still playing on his bloodied lips. "Kill me just like you did to our father right in front of her."

The words made Jed falter and he threw me a quick glance over his shoulder. He looked remarkably like when I first met him – bloodlust warring within him as he stood over Claudius's dead body, with me just barely a few feet away. Even if he was in his wolf form then, his eyes conveyed the same emotions.

"Not going to make a move?" The smirk on Malthus's face stretched. "Fine. My turn, then."

All I saw was a flash of onyx and silver as Malthus buried the knife of my pendant into Jed's chest.

"Jed!" His name left my lips in a terrified scream as I saw Jed collapse, the onyx of the crescent pendant still buried deep into his chest, the silver blade sunk all the way in. Lance lunged forward immediately and so did I, but we were both held back by the wolves in front of us, still snarling and keeping us at bay, away from him.

I could feel everything he felt flooding through me – a drowning blend of agonising pain that scorched every single inch of my body until my mind was nothing but numbed. This had to be what the monsters winning felt like. This had to be what dying felt like. This had to be what losing the one person who meant the world to you felt like. It didn't feel like sadness, or pain, or anger – no, it felt like breaking, every part of you felt shattered into a million fragments until you knew you could never, ever piece yourself back together again.

Malthus mercilessly shoved Jed aside, leaving him in his wolf form lying in a pool of crimson blood, blood that was still gushing forth in torrents from his chest. Picking up his own knife that he'd dropped earlier, Malthus strode towards us with nothing but lethal intent on his face, eyes cold and glinting with amusement as he saw the look of utter devastation on my face as I stared at Jed.

Lance lunged forward in a defensive stance when Malthus reached for me, but he was promptly dragged off by the two wolves. When I twisted out of the way, he didn't blink, simply reaching a hand out with his swift reflexes to latch around my arm, before dragging me outside so that I was mere feet away from Jed.

"Say hello to my brother for me wherever the hell you end up in," Malthus said lightly, and yanked my head back, the silver blade in his hand mere inches away from my neck. Heart pounding in fear and eyes wide open, I struggled futilely against him and felt myself drag in that last few terrified gasps of air.

Then there was a gunshot.

For a moment, I froze, my breath catching in my throat as I wondered if the bullet had hit me and I was treading somewhere along that fragile line between life and death.

But I felt no pain and instead, it was Malthus who wavered. His arm loosened around me as he went stock still after the impact had thrown him off course. Then the next two gunshots rang out in quick succession, and he stumbled, the knife slipping from his hand and clattering onto the ground. When I followed the direction of his gaze, I saw what he had seen – the three silver bullets that had buried themselves along the surface of his shoulder.

I turned around, and so did Malthus, even though his actions were jerky as he did. Only to come face to face with an emotionless Bianca, who held a gun in her hands, the barrel levelled right at him.

"I did promise you this, darling," She said to Malthus, her voice entirely cool as she surveyed him with a slight tilt of her head. "Remember?"

Horror flickered across his hard features as realisation swiftly dawned on him. But he had barely the chance to react before Bianca pulled the trigger on him again.

Four, five, six.

Again and again and again; and I quickly stumbled away from him as Malthus began to stumble back from the torrent of bullets. Bianca's aim was on point but never lethal, strategically directed at specific parts of the body where it was never along an important artery or vein. It was clear she wanted a slow, painful death in retribution for everything he'd done to her, every second of every minute of torture that he'd inflicted upon her, and so much more. Then her pace began to slow as she fired the final few bullets.

Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-two.

I'd already averted my eyes even though I flinched every time a gunshot rang out above the sound of the crashing waves; and focused my attention instead on Jed as I collapsed to the ground beside him. I didn't waste a moment pulling out the knife – sometimes you didn't in order to keep from aggravating the wound further, but Jed was vulnerable to silver and the longer it stayed in him, the worse things got. He was still bleeding profusely, losing far too much blood that the feeling of sinking dread grew with every second that passed. But suddenly paused, I quickly glanced up.

"And twenty-three," She finished evenly, firing that last shot before the corners of her lips tugged up in a cold smirk. Malthus was a bloodied, grotesque mess that was crumbling, quivering as he tried to hold himself up. But with several quick strides, Bianca stood in front of him, her posture straight and head held high as she regarded him with the coldest blue eyes. "I counted."

Without warning, she swept up one foot in a high kick that landed square in his chest, knocking the wind right out of his lungs. The monster looked truly terrified now, eyes wide with fear as he realised that he was about to meet his demise. Malthus flailed for a second as he toppled over the railing, hands grasping out for nothing but air as he fell over the balcony.

At that moment, it didn't even occur to me to save him. The notion never came to mind and Bianca and I watched as Malthus plummeted down, until he finally disappeared into nothingness in the black waters below.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then I blinked, and that movement alone was enough to trigger the both of us back into action. She spun on her heel and loaded her gun again, leaving to help Lance fight off the other two wolves; while I remained by Jed's side. The moment I laid a shaking hand on his head, he opened his eyes, his gaze swiftly latching onto me. A flicker of recognition pulsed within them, and before I knew it, he was shifting back. It seemed to take him a tremendous effort, the change happening far slower than it usually did, until his black fur had faded to smooth skin stained with crimson blood.

"Jed." My voice was barely a whisper as I stared at him. There was just so, so much blood. Everywhere. Until it was all that I could see apart from him. "Jed, Jed, stay with me."

Haphazardly, I shrugged off my coat and draped it over to cover him, before shifting closer and tugging the sleeve of my jumper over the palm of my hand. I was just about to add pressure to the open, gaping wound in his chest when his hand caught mine, long bloodied fingers looping around my wrist as he brushed his thumb gently against my skin.

"Quinn," He breathed, his voice a tired rasp that was barely audible to my ears.

"You're going to fine, okay?" The words tumbled out of my lips in a haphazard, almost incoherent flurry and I pressed the other sleeve of my jumper to his wound. He didn't even seem to care; either that or he was so numbed with pain that he no longer felt it. "Just stay with me, I'll get you out of here and everything will be okay, I promise, just stay with me – "

"Alpha." The familiar voice sounded worried and Lance was suddenly by Jed's other side. He'd shifted back and had already pulled on his jeans, but it was impossible to miss the bruises smattering across his torso. He took one look at Jed's bleeding chest, then at the silver knife sticking out of the onyx pendant on the floor, and his face went ashen. "Shit."

In the background, I could hear the occasional howl echoing in the distance, as well as Bianca's panicked voice telling us that she was going to get help, and then her rapid footsteps as she disappeared, but I could hardly care less. Instead, I focused on Jed, letting Lance take over from me as he reached for his jacket and pulled it up over Jed's chest, hands pressed steadily over his wound to stop the bleeding. Jed didn't seem to notice. Instead, he simply stared at me, his green eyes clearly laced with pain and becoming duller by the second, but he kept his gaze fixed on me and nothing else.

"Don't leave me, okay?" I was sobbing openly now, but I hardly cared, especially when he began to drift off, fighting to keep his eyes from closing. "You can't find me and then leave me so soon after. You can't make me fall in love with you and then leave before I've even loved you enough – "

For a moment, his gaze sharpened and a flicker of apology crossed his eyes. His fingers were still looped loosely around one of my wrists, and he tugged my hand up. With an infinite amount of gentleness, he brushed his pale lips across my skin and sponged a soft kiss against the back of my hand.

It was the last thing he did before his grip loosened around mine, his eyes finally falling shut.