Ethan snarled viciously. His blood was humming louder now, it was like a fire that was beginning to burn. It reached out to me and it didn't pain my beast, it licked itself over us and soothed our aching skin.

"Ethan," I whimpered.

He let out a sharp breath and looked around. "I will find them, I promise I will find them and tear them up, well up enough for you to finish them." I tried to smile but it made me wince. His chest rumbled as he pulled me into him. "Just hold on, the pack doctor is coming. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I wasn't here."

I whimpered into his chest when feet marched in through the door. Ethan snarled and cradled me into him more while I hissed out at the intruder. "Brother it's me, it's just me," Evan said as calmly as he could. "Shit, what the hell?"

I heard steps walk around before his eyes met mine then Ethan's. He bit back a snarl then looked over at me. "Are you alright little sister."

I nodded. "Ya, I just hurt like hell right now," I replied shakily.

"Evan I want Ryder here now," Ethan ordered. He was trying to stay calm but it was hard for him to hold back the snarl in his voice or the way his blood would spike with fire every now and then. Evan's eyes widened a bit before he flickered his eyes back to me then to Ethan. "I want him and Jake in here. There's no way there isn't a shred of them in here. We find them today."

Evan nodded. "Already linked them they are on their way."

Ethan sighed and turned my face towards him. His wolf was still pacing and snarling in the back of his mind. I knew he wanted out, he wanted blood, but he needed to wait. We would have to wait.

"Tell me what happened, can you tell me?"

"I had just got out of the shower when they jumped on me. There were four. I tried to fight them off but there were too many." I let out a long breath. "They weren't as sick Ethan, these were stronger."

I was stopped when Ethan's chest harshly vibrated. It made me shiver and curl into his arms some more. He let out a labored breath and kissed my hair. "What else?"

"I got my fangs into one of their throats and tore some up pretty good, there has to be blood here. It had to have spilled on the ground. They left but they knew me, they knew who I was," I murmured out.

"What?" Ethan whispered sharply.

"They said 'It's been nice playing with you Thorne.'" A violent growl shook through the room. Evan's eyes widened and filled with fury as he bit back his own violent growl.

Evan let out a sharp breath and nodded. "Ryder and Jake are here. Martin said Sam can meet you at our place."

"Alright, let's go," Ethan said with a little strain in his voice. "Evan find that blood. There has to be blood around here since she got her fangs in them. I want to know as soon as you're done or if you find anything."

Evan nodded then started to walk back out the door. Ethan let out a tense breath then kissed my hair again. "Ok let's get you to Sam. This isn't going to be fun. I'm sorry baby, I'm so sorry."

I nodded and curled into him a bit more. He started to pick me up which only made the pain throb. I could feel his beast lash out with displeasure, not at me but at the ones who did this to me. I pushed the pain back through, I didn't have a choice. Everything was going to hurt right now.

Ethan started to carry me outside where a handful of wolves had gathered outside and were watching the scene. He let his wolf push forward a bit as his chest rumbled, causing them to all scatter quickly back into their cabins.

"Ethan!" Thomas yelled out. "Oh my God, Thorne." He looked down at me then at Ethan who tightened his grip on me as his blood began to hum a hair louder. Thomas looked back at my cabin that Ryder, Jake, and Evan were searching around liked crazed animals then at us. "What the hell?! What happened?"

"Rogues," I whispered out. "Four of them."

Thomas raised his brows then marched in the house. Ethan tightened his grip on me while the fire in his veins started to simmer some more, licking at me and calming my whimpers.

"Ethan," Elliot said gently. Ethan turned around to my vampires. Derek saw me and snarled violently then zipped into the house. Elliot clenched his jaw and pushed back his brewing anger. I heard a door open; Thomas was walking back in irritated angry steps. Elliot flickered his eyes to Thomas then to me. "Ethan," he said gently as he held his arms out.

Ethan turned his head to look at Thomas; his chest vibrated a bit before he turned back to Elliot. He walked forwards and handed me as carefully as he could to Elliot; my beast whined. She wanted our male, she wanted to be back in the arms of our male.

Elliot pulled me to him then nodded to Ethan. "You need to handle this. You know what needs to be done," he hissed out.

Ethan clenched his jaw then turned back to Thomas. Thomas pulled at his hair then threw his hands up. "Where are they, Ethan? Where are the rogues? There's not a damn trail in there."

Ethan rumbled a bit and stepped closer to him. "Do you not see her? Do you think that just happened?" his voice was harsh and full of an authority that seemed to take Thomas aback.

Thomas flickered his eyes to me and shook his head. "I see her Ethan, I see her real well. Listen, there's just her blood in there and a torn up kitchen. There's no damn trail! There's barely even footprints outside the house, and most of them are yours!"

"Thomas she said she ripped at one of their throat's. There has to be blood in there, that's not a clean bite." Ethan was humming some more. He was fighting with himself. I didn't have to look at him, I could feel it. I could feel the fear fighting with the beast.

Thomas sighed and looked back at the house sardonically. "Wait here."

He walked back in the house before he yelled out to Ryder, who stopped sniffing in his spot before he ran through the front door that Thomas was holding open. Elliot turned so we could see; Ryder was going nuts in the house. His nose was on the floor like white on rice and his eyes seemed frantic. He was gone for at least fifteen minutes while Ethan paced back and forth impatiently, snarling every now and then.

More wolves had gathered and in the distance, I could make out Martin and pixie brunette walking quickly with him with a bag in her arms. Ethan looked up at the crowd and snarled again. They all scattered to their house, but that didn't stop them. Many of them just went into neighbors homes and looked through the windows.

I snarled. People always love to watch and whisper but they never want to help. They never want to come our of their home and say 'enough.' I wondered if anyone saw what happened at all. There were a few other houses besides Ethan's and Andrea's that were around, maybe they saw something?

Thomas started to walk back to us. His chest was rumbling and his were livid. "There isn't a damn thing in there Ethan. Not a damn thing."

"That doesn't mean that it didn't happen," Ethan bit back.

"You sure about that? You sure the pull isn't driving Thorne a little crazy?"

Another snarl ripped out through Ethan's chest as his blood hummed louder. Thomas returned on that was full of displeasure and annoyance. "You're saying she made this up?! Are you out of your damn mind Thomas?! Just look at her! Do you think she really did that to herself?!"

"I think the pull can cause us to do a lot of crazy things the longer we fight it," he clipped back.

Ethan snarled again and stepped closer. Evan, Ryder, and Jake all trotted forward and stopped to look at the scene along with other wolves in the area. Derek stood on the porch with a cold murderous glare that sent chills down my spine. Even from here I could see the vampire's fangs poking out of his lips.

"Watch your step boy, you don't want to do this with me," he hissed out.

"Watch my step? My mate was almost killed in her own home and you think she did it to herself?" he snarled out as the energy from his veins crackled. "You're going to do nothing again? Rogues Thomas, does that word not mean anything to you anymore!?"

My beast let out a growl of approval. She was proud of our male. Our male who was started to take the right steps forward.

Thomas snarled some more and looked back at Evan on the porch then back to Ethan. "I lost family too that day Ethan. My hate for them is just as strong as yours, but I won't have you sending the pack into a frenzy over some fairy tale! You need to just mark her boy and set her mind right."

Ethan snarled back more viscously while my wolf let out a sharp growl of her own. It pained my chest as she lashed out, but I couldn't blame her. We may want Ethan, and we were pretty confident that we would eventually let Ethan have our neck, but it would be on our terms when we ready. That and my beast didn't like the male that dare insult us; that used the pull as a petty excuse to weasel his way out of this one.

"Her mind is right. Her mind is damn perfect if you ask me. Her mind is one of the things I love most about her–" he paused while I felt my heart swell as the pull swirled with tendrils of joy. "There were rogues in that damn house and we are stupid if we just do nothing Thomas."

Thomas snarled again and looked back at me. "I don't want you wasting resources on this Ethan."

"She's my mate I'm not going to ask for your permission to look into it," he bit out. I felt my wolf swirl with more approval as the energy coming off of him popped like firecrackers.

Thomas raised his brows and stepped forward a bit. "You challenging me Ethan?"

"I'm telling you that I'm not going to let whoever did this to her get away with it."

Elliot tightened his arms around me as Derek started to casually walk forward. Sam and Martin were watching along with Billy and Andrea who just trotted up, sweating a glistening from what I assumed was a hard training session.

"Fine," Thomas clipped. "But I don't want anyone but you and Evan on it. We have too much other shit to deal with then this bullshit."

Ethan let out a rumble as the hair on the back of his neck raised slightly. He let out a tense breath then nodded to Thomas who flickered his eyes to me again before turning on his heel and storming off.

My wolf stirred. While she was happy to see our male push a bit harder, she didn't like him leaving things like that. She didn't like the way the alpha ordered our mate around and accused us of what we knew was disgustingly false.

We didn't like it probably because we knew what was true now. We know what our mate needed to do but the idea in itself was not something that was just easy to do.

"Ethan," Elliot called out calmly. Ethan tensed and let out along breath before turning to look at Elliot. "I'm going to take her to your cabin, the pack doctor is here. We need to get her patched up."

Ethan tensely nodded before walking over to me and kissing my forehead. "I won't be long behind you."

I nodded as Elliot started to walk toward Samantha who gave me a sympathetic smile next to Martin. "Elliot," Derek called out.

Elliot turned his head as he continued walking. "Yap?"

"I'll be there soon, I'm going to stay and help them."

Elliot nodded then pulled me closer to him. "It's ok Char, we'll get you fixed up."

"Well, I wish we could have met in better circumstances," Samantha sighed out. She started walking next to us and flickered her eyes to me, assessing my injuries along the way.

"Babe, I'm going to help Ethan, I'll be back soon," Martin called out before he shifted.

"Alright, be careful," she replied over her shoulder. She shook her head as he held the front door open for Elliot to walk through with me. "This is so screwed up," she whispered out to herself.

She shut the door as Elliot walked me to island and gently sat me on top of it. I hissed in pain a little as Elliot steadied me. I felt like I was hammered meat, maybe because I was at the moment.

Sam walked over to me with a small flashlight that she clicked on. "Ok, I'm sorry about this but I need to look at your eyes."

I nodded as the harsh light pierced my eyes. It made me cringe a bit. Sam looked at both of my eyes carefully, her wolf was thorough; she must have been extremely in tune to detail, you could see her sucking it all in just in one glance.

She clicked the light off and let out a relieved sigh. "Alright, looks like you don't have a concussion, which is good. Now, let's get this off of you and take a look at the damage," she gently said as she tugged at my dress.

Elliot picked me up gently so she could move the bottom of my dress over my butt before she gently helped me out of it. I wrapped my arms around myself as the air hit my skin. Elliot rumbled and Sam's eyes widened. Elliot closed his eyes and looked out the front door. "I need to talk to Derek. Jake's outside so if you need anything then link, ok Char?"

I nodded as he zipped out of the room. Sam gave my hand a reassuring squeeze before she started to dig around in her bag. "I believe you, you know? So does Martin. There's a lot more of us that believe you than you think."

I stilled and cocked my head as she turned to me with an oversized q-tip, some antiseptic, and a couple of other jars with various creams and ointment in them. "Thank you."

She nodded. "It's nice to see it."

"See what?" I asked as she tabbed a wet q-tip with antiseptic on it against one of the angry slices on my belly.

"See Ethan start to really come into himself." I stilled and looked into her eyes that nodded with approval at me. "And it's nice to see him with a female like you."

I blushed a little as she started to gently dab some ointment over the area. "Thank you."

She smiled and nodded. "We all see it. We all see how happy you make him, but we also see what you do to him."

I cocked my head as she rolled out some gauze and cut a few pieces with medical grade scissors. "And what's that?"

She gently pressed the gauze to my belly then looked up at me quickly. "Can you hold that?"

I nodded and put my hand where she had been holding the gauze while she cut a couple of pieces of tape. She stuck the ends on the counter, within fingertip's reach, so she could grab a new piece quickly when she needed it.

She put her hand where mine was and started to tape over the gauze that was already starting to soak up the blood that was still slowly oozing out. "You're going to have to change these every few hours until it stops bleeding. Try and let Ethan lick at them later," she said with a knowing smile while I flushed slightly. "It will help you to heal up a little quicker and probably make him calm the hell down. You should be good in a day or so, but I would recommend to take it easy."

I nodded and let out a shaky breath as she ran her fingers gently over my cheek that was swelling. It would be an angry bruise by night. I should know, it wasn't the first time that black and blue blobs covered my face. "I'll get you some ice for that. I'm sorry this happened to you, really I am."

I nodded as she started to put antiseptic on my sides where one of the rogues had grabbed me with his claws. "What I meant before, well, let's just say that the rest of the pack isn't stupid. The moon doesn't pair a female like you with a male like him for no reason."

I looked down at her as my wolf stirred. It was like all signs were pointing into a direction that seemed to still shock me. The thought was insane, yet in the same sense it wasn't. It wasn't that simple though, I knew it wouldn't be that simple.

Sam finished taping up one of my sides and looked at me while my mind was churning. A careful smiled tugged at her lips. She slowly nuzzled her cheek against my good one then leaned against it. I could feel her breath on my ear; my wolf was pacing. She wasn't threatened by this female, but she was also still on edge from the rogues.

"Just between you and me," she whispered so lowly that even with her lips so close to my ear it was hard to hear. "I would much rather call you my luna."

I felt my body still as she pulled away and nodded at me. Those were dangerous words. I knew what following through with them meant.

I felt him walk in the door like he was a strong cloud of electricity. A cloud that covered me and hugged me gently as he neared me. I flickered my eyes to his, he was still pissed. His wolf was close, close enough that his eyes were glowing as he closed in on me.

He flickered his eyes over me which caused his chest to rumble. I sighed tiredly and gave him a half smile. Sam stepped out of the way and started to unpack a few more things while he brushes his fingers against my cheek. I cringed a bit as his fingers reached where the painful swelling was.

He rumbled again and blinked back the pain and guilt I could feel building in his core. He looked back to me and carefully kissed my lips. My beast whined out to him, she just wanted him to hold us indefinitely.

"I need to do a few more things then she's all your's beta," Sam said politely as she looked over to a few more gashes.

He nodded and stepped back so Sam could do her job, which was hard since every time I would wince or hiss out from the pain, Ethan would just growl. Sam would snap at him a little and I tried to keep him calm. I understood. I understood as did my wolf. His beast wanted to find the rogues and tear there throats out, as did mine.

I looked up at him while he was staring at his feet with his brows furrowed, thinking. He was at war with his thoughts. It both gave me hope and frustrated me. It was such a shitty situation.

I couldn't tell him about his grandparents, I knew that outright telling what his granddad said would not do me any good; it wouldn't do him any good. I could tell him and tell him and tell him as much as I wanted, but unless he wanted to hear me, accept the truth and use it, then it would be useless.

Timing.

It seemed like timing was the key ingredient here.

When was the right time to tell him about the tree? About what Levi had said? Shit, Levi was going to loose his shit when he hears about today. I would have to tell him face to face and bring Billy, the last think we needed was Levi storming down here.

I had a wary feeling about the tree. Ethan was so on edge right now, as was his beast, that I felt like I should let him calm down before I try to talk to him. I needed to calm down before I talked to him. I still felt shaken up by fears from a past life that were all too familiar to me.

Sam finished and left some supplies for Ethan. She went over with him how to care for the wounds, and showed him what cream when where. He listened well, but I knew his mind was in other places. I didn't blame him, mine was too.

After she was done he walked back to me and placed a hand on either side of me then leaned his forehead against mine. His beast was angry. He was angry and pained and he scared. He was scared because someone almost took his female away from; a rogue almost took another person from him.

I touched the side of his face and rubbed at his scruff a little. He leaned into my palm and let out a stressed breath before he reached his hand up and snaked his fingers between mine. "I know that you want to talk about it, but right now I need you to just let me hold you until my mind stops feeling like my beast is going to tear my brain apart. We can't handle you like this and I really don't want to kill just yet until we know more. Everyone is at the house searching and right now all we can do is wait, as much as it pisses me off."

I let out a hot breath and nodded. "Ok," I sighed out.

He carefully scooped me off the counter when Derek walked in. He was tense. His eyes looked like a storm and Elliot looked no less pissed off as he walked behind him. "Nothing, we're still looking."

Ethan nodded. "I'm taking her to rest, tell Evan to stop until it's night. We'll look again then."

I felt my wolf perk up a little. Derek nodded then looked over at me. "I'll bring you two dinner later."

"Thank you," I murmured to him.

He gave me a half smile then turned with Elliot behind him. Ethan turned back and carefully walked up the stairs. I winced every now and then, making him rumble as my pain twisted the pull ever so slightly.

"Sunshine we need to get these off of you, ok?" Ethan murmured into my hair as he looked down at my undergarments that were stained with blood.

I sighed a little and nodded. I didn't want to sleep in them and be further reminded of what happened, my wounds would do that enough. Ethan sat me on the edge of the bed and pulled out a big t-shirt for me and some boxers. He walked back over to me and brushed some hair out of the side of my face that I could feel bruising then kissed me.

"Hold up your arms," he whispered to me. He kissed next to my ear while I raised my arms so he could slip my bra off, distracting me with pleasure from the pull of the pain that was throbbing through my body.

I blinked and a soft shirt was pooling around my thighs around my hips. Ethan smiled a little and kissed my lips again. "Do you think you can stand?"

I nodded. He helped pull me up from under my arms then knelt in front of me. I felt the pull swirl around in my groggy head. I cursed inwardly. This was certainly not the time for this.

His cool fingers found the line of my panties from under the shirt, slipping them off quickly before he reached for a pair of boxers; my damn breath felt like it was never going to come back for me.

"Alright step," he gently said as he held them open for me. I stepped one foot into one hole as I held onto his shoulder, then did the same with the other before he pulled them up as he stood. He rested his hands gently on my hip bones and kissed me gently again, letting out a sigh of what seemed like relief before he scooped me up and laid me in his bed.

Once I laid in his bed I felt better. His scent blanketing me seemed like it was working its way over my wounds and healing them on their own. The pull stirred and I pushed it back. I wasn't in the mood to deal with its bullshit right now.

Ethan checked his window then shut his door before he came back to me and slid into bed. I was trying to get comfortable, but everywhere I turned it hurt. His chest vibrated as he crawled over to me.

He sat back for a bit as his brows furrowed the held his hands out to me. "Can you slide forward a little?"

I took his hands and let him help me scoot closer to him. He rumbled again as I winced then kissed the back of both my hands. My beast purred at the tingling sensation that spread over my hand and up my arms.

Ethan smiled a little and carefully crawled behind me. He snaked his arms around me, resting them with a soft firmness on my hips, then pulled me back to lean on his bare chest. Skin on skin.

The feeling of his skin on mine already made me feel better, it coated the pain like a watered down version of Lidocaine. My head leaned back against his chest as his hand snaked up and started to play with my hair; it made my beast purr and started to make me feel drowsy.

His kissed my crown then reached for the remote and flicked on his television. "I know she said that you didn't have a concussion, but I need you to try and stay awake for a little longer, just in case."

I nodded and fought to keep my eyes open. The feeling of being surrounded by his scent mixed with the simmering fire from the pull and his fingers in my hair was pulling my tired beat up body towards a euphoric sleep. "I'm so tired Ethan."

"I know baby, how about we play a game?"

"What game?" I yawned out as he flicked one of the older Star Wars movies.

"The one we played in the tree house when I first took you there, do you remember?"

I nodded sleepily as he set the remote down and wrapped his arm across my chest, away from the gashes that were still sensitive. "Yes, course."

"Ok, I'll go first then," he said gently before he kissed my cheek. I could feel his wolf settling a little, but only a little. He was still close, still edgy. As was mine, but she was tired. We needed to rest and let our body heel. "Why did you choose this pack? Why come here?"

"I don't know. I had this itch," I said sleepily. "It was like a pull. It had been driving me crazy since Christmas and only got worse. When Levi showed me a map of packs he had outlined, I knew. I don't know, but it felt like I had to come here."

He rested his head against mine as I let out a drowsy sigh. "What was your mother like?"

I don't know why I asked him. It just came out. I knew a bit of what she was like, I had seen her. But still, it was like an instinct that caused me to say it.

Ethan stilled then let out a long breath. "She was like the morning sun. She was always kind, soft with all of us when she needed to be, but she was just as tough as my dad. She had Eli and I in the dirt a few good times when we really went too far. She used to sing a lot. She sang us to sleep when we were little. She gave us all nicknames, she used to call Eli 'little blue' because she said he burned like a blue wild fire. She used to call me 'white hot,' she said I was like white hot fire."

He stopped and I felt the guilt settle in. The guilt of knowing what I had seen. I curled into him a some more and tried to push it out as the movie murmured in the background. My eyelids were heavy, and my body was tired. "Does it still itch?"

It woke me from my almost sleep. I didn't want to lie to him but I didn't know if I was ready to tell him the whole truth yet. "It stopped at first."

"Why?"

"Because I met you. The day I met you it turned into something else, it turned into the pull between us." He stilled while I forced my eyelids open again. "But it started again. It's not as bad though, but it's still annoying."

I felt him rumble a little. "Why? Why do you think that is."

"The whispers..." my voice trailed off then was followed by a yawn. I wanted to sleep so damn bad in that moment. I wanted to jump in a pool of sleep and let myself drown in it. "Can I sleep now?"

Ethan looked at the digital clock on his nightstand and sighed. "Just a little longer sunshine, I'm sorry. I just don't want to take any chances."

I growled tiredly but complied. I knew he was only trying to help. He was much calmer now, but I could still feel the beast pacing back and forth. His chest would vibrate every now and then, which only made me shiver in delight. Damn this pull.

"Fine, but it's my turn," I grumbled. "You got like four questions."

He chuckled softly and kissed my shoulder. "Alright sunshine, go on."

"What do I smell like to you?"

He stilled a little. I felt his beast pause and reach out to mine while his heart fluttered. I could hear the faint sound of him smelling the air, taking in my scent before he rumbled again. This time, it was out of desire rather than rage.

I turned my face that felt heavy and looked up at him. "Tell me," I gently prodded.

He let out a long breath and nodded. His lips met my forehead before he rested his head on the headboard behind us. "Do you remember when I told you that you scared me, well, more like what you do to me scares me?"

I nodded sleepily. "Yes."

He sighed a little and kissed my crown again. "When I first saw you, first caught wind of you I thought I was going to lose my damn mind. It was so powerful, God it was so damn strong that it almost knocked me over–"

"It knocked me over," I added.

He chuckled a little. "I remember." His fingers were rubbing my scalp, drawing me closer to sleep but I fought it. I wanted to hear this, I felt like I needed to. "I didn't even realize that you were Levi's, I was so consumed with the pull. It felt like it was pouring life back into a part of me that died. It was like it woke that part up, well more like yanked it out of its grave and kicked it into overdrive.

"It was like lavender at first. I remember thinking it was odd because we don't have any of that growing here, but then the vanilla and honey came. The more I followed you the more I realized that you didn't smell like anything in particular, it was more like what your smell reminded me of."

"What's that?" I yawned out.

"At first it was the first day of spring; sweet and strong with so much energy. I followed you and it was like I was following waves crashing into a beach with a sweet salty breeze, it was a struggle to keep running, to keep from marking you right then when you stopped in the forest.

"It was like the sun. Like the sun breaking through a really bad storm. Like sunshine. You can't hide from the sun, it's how I feel around you. Every time I'm with you I feel like you're breathing life back into me, into a part of me I just–" he let out a hot breath then leaned his chin on my shoulder. "A part of me that I never thought would come back. The hard part is I like it. My beast craves it as do I, we know it's right, it's just–" he let out another breath then kissed my cheek again. "You can't wake up dead things like that without understanding the consequences both good and bad of doing it."

I wanted to push him further but my mind was so groggy. My body was tired and the pull was buzzing with temporary contentment. Ethan sighed a little then pulled some of the covers over me. "Sleep sunshine, I won't go anywhere."

Sunshine.

It finally clicked in my brain, the nickname.