I was floating, or at least it felt like floating. Maybe I was flying, or falling? I was unsure, but I was weightless and surrounded by soft, luminescent light. Was I dead? Was this Sovngarde? Or Hircine's hunting grounds? I tried to open my eyes to see; but they were so heavy, no matter how hard I tried they would not open. I was forced to just float and listen to the silence. It occurred to me while I waited that if I could not see, how had I known I was surrounded by light?

I came awake screaming as a burning pain ripped through my chest. Lydia was at my side holding my good arm down while Ulfric held my feet; over me loomed Quintus Navale, the apprentice alchemist to the now deceased alchemist Nurelion, who once owned The White Phial apothecary. His hand was wrapped around the shaft of the arrow protruding from my chest. He had snapped the end of the arrow off and was trying to pull the rest of it out of my chest. I could feel how close it was to my heart; it needed to get out now before it caused more damage.

"Get. It. Out. Now." I clenched my teeth together and growled through tight lips as the walls of the apothecary began to close in on me.

Quintus looked pale but wrapped his long fingers around the shaft and pulled as hard as possible. It barely moved; instead, my blood on the arrow made it slip through his fingers. He cursed in frustration, reaching for a bloody cloth to wipe his hands with. Once again he reached for the arrow and I jerked. "Use the cloth." He stared blankly down at me for several precious heartbeats before comprehending my words. He grabbed a rag and wrapped it around the arrow as a grip and nodded to Lydia and Ulfric, who held my limbs tightly in their grasps. Quintus took a deep breath and pulled.

I bellowed in both pain and rage as the arrow was dislodged from my flesh. Fresh blood poured from the wound. Black spots painted my vision, and I bucked at their hands; I could feel the veil between human and beast fading. Ulfric's grip on my legs loosened as my eyes bled to black, a small gasp escaping his lips. I fought to control the beast but knew it was too late, I was going to change no matter what; the only choice I had was which form I would change to. I tried to concentrate on my wolf form instead of the werewolf, hoping just a normal beast would be less of a threat to those surrounding me. I opened my mouth to whisper an apology, and a low whine emanated from my throat.

"Damn it to oblivion," Lydia cursed, "she's shifting!" Releasing my arm, she grabbed Quintus and dragged him to the doorway. "Ulfric, come! Now!"

He shook his head at her, refusing to leave the room. He stood stone still at my changing feet. I pleaded with my eyes for him to go as bones snapped and reformed until I was lying on my side in wolf form on the table, my ruined dress shredded around me. The look of betrayal on his face had me whimpering. Slowly I crawled towards him, flat on my belly, trying not to frighten him. I reached out with my snout and licked the back of his hand tentatively. He wrenched away from my tongue, staring down at me in horror, then stomped from the room. I laid my head sadly on the table; I was lucky that he hadn't killed me on sight, but all I could feel was sorrow. I had lost any chance of anything between the two of us, even friendship. I knew there would be no way he could look past my dual nature.

"She's cursed! A damned wolf!" Ulfric shouted. "Had neither of you thought to mention this fact to me before I proposed to her?" He stomped back and forth across the White Phial's shop floor, shattering the fragile calm in the store.

"Jarl Ulfric, she is the same woman she was before you knew and yet you found affection for her. How can knowing be any different?" Quintus asked quietly, wiping the remaining blood from his hands.

"Because before, I didn't know she could tear me apart."

Lydia huffed. "She's always been able to do that even before she was changed. You constantly underestimate her. She chooses not to do harm to you; she 'believes' in you. Yet you condemn her immediately after finding out about her dual nature. You are nothing more than a bigot. "

"Watch your mouth, woman," he snarled.

"Perhaps it's better that you know, so you can leave her alone now. She has enough romance issues in her life without you adding to it. I doubt Farkas and Vilkas would even care about her 'curse,' as you've called it."

The shopkeeper's door burst open and the twins stumbled into the shop, bloody and bruised but together and alive. They surveyed the jarl, Quintus, and Lydia and growled in almost unison, "Where is Arianna?"

Lydia surveyed the twins in surprise. "Upstairs, alive and resting."

Both Farkas and Vilkas let out of sigh of relief. "I-I mean we-must see her," Vilkas replied, eyeing the stairwell. "Arianna will want to see us when she awakens."

Ulfric's head snapped around to their direction, baring his teeth in a carnal way. "The Dragonborn is no longer your concern. Stay away from my bride."

Vilkas stormed forward, his eyes narrowed in fury. "She will marry you over your dead body."

"And you will see her over yours," he growled back. "She agreed to be my wife, she chose me over you both."

"Only because she was being blackmailed into it," Lydia snapped.

"Lies!" He screamed. "She wants to be with me."

"Tell that to whoever kidnapped these two and sent her the letter saying they would kill them if she didn't agree to marry you."

With fire burning in his eyes, Ulfric took an intimidating step toward Lydia, who held her ground, bracing for the blow that never came. Farkas grabbed the jarl's arm, pulling him away from the housecarl, and fighting the urge to tear Ulfric limb from limb, leaving nothing but a stain on the ground for threatening her.

A faint cough had everyone whirling towards the stairwell leading up into the shopkeeper's quarters, all frozen by the sight of the Dragonborn standing there, deathly pale and frail. Her raven hair hung limply around her colorless face; she had wrapped what must have been one of Quintus's robes around her. Five sets of eyes were glued to her slow-moving form.

"Please," she whispered faintly, reaching toward the three men. "No more. Hasn't there been enough bloodshed today?"

Lydia rushed to Arianna's side, wrapping a steady arm around her waist. "My thane, you should not be out of bed."

"No," she replied shaking her head slowly and sadly at Lydia. "I have to do this. I have to make the choice between them now, or they will tear one another apart."

"My lady," Lydia started, but Arianna rested a calm but unsteady hand on her thane's cheek.

"It's all right Lydia; we always knew I would have to make a choice."

Ulfric, Farkas and Vilkas each held their breath as they waited for the woman they all loved to speak. To decide.

Arianna took a deep steadying breath. "I…choose…"