The other day- Ashe's POV

"You're trying to convince us to stay here," Tess said with a small chuckle.

I smiled and rolled my eyes, trying to play it off. Was I being that obvious? As much as I fought with Elijah, he was some of the only family I had left and Tess seemed like my ticket to get him to stick around. They can't raise a baby in a safe house, those places were magnets for danger. Why hadn't he seen that yet? Werewolves needed to be raised around their kind.

"I don't think its possible to get Elijah to stay anywhere," I said as I stopped in front of the shop. "This is our shop. I guess you could call it our blacksmith shop. We have one guy who makes the majority of our tools and such here. His names Richard."

I opened the door and called out "Rich? You here?" There was no answer so I let us in. Being an alpha had its perks, no one could really yell at me for going places I shouldn't be.

I led them past the front counter to the workspace in the back.

"Remember when we tried to sneak back here once to make knives?" I asked Elijah.

He smiled, "We were what like ten? We got in so much trouble."

I laughed and walked up to the shelves, pulling half done tools off and admiring Richard's handiwork.

"Do you remember Richard?" I asked Elijah as I passed the two of them tools to look at.

Elijah shook his head, "No not really. I don't think I talked to him very much growing. He always seemed like the lonesome type. Besides he's what ten years older than us?"

I set the tools back down, "Well remind me later that there's something I need to show you before you leave."

I lead them to the back of the workspace where Richard did a lot of the metal hammering or whatever its called. There was a fire pit where he heated the metal and tables and machinery where he shaped them into tools.

Elijah smiled and nudged a rock at the edge of the fire pit with his foot. It was cold, Richard hadn't been in yet today.

"You sure it's safe to have a fire pit indoors? I don't see any ventilation."

I waved it off, "There's a window right there. Rich would add more ventilation if he wanted."

I noticed that Tess hadn't said anything for a bit now. I brushed some sawdust off a table as I looked over at her, she had a strange look on her face.

"Tess? You alright?" I asked. I wondered if something here was making her uncomfortable.

She placed her hand on her stomach and glanced over at Elijah who was inspecting the firepit still and took a few steps around the buckets and boxes. I opened my mouth to ask her again when she suddenly dropped to the ground with a scream.

"Tess!" Elijah quickly ran to her.

"There's blood," I smelled it before I saw it.

"Tess! Tess!" Elijah shouted again and again but she couldn't hear him. Tess continued to scream.

"Oh my god," he found the source of the blood pooling around our knees. There was a metal stake in her side. "We have get it out."

"You can't," I argued. "She'll bleed out!"

Tess' hands reached for her side. Elijah caught them before they touched the stake.

"Don't touch it baby. It's going to be alright. Don't look at it, just look at me. Focus Tess. Tess!"

I don't know if she heard him as she screamed again.

"What are doing sitting there?" Elijah growled at me. "Ashe get help!"

I quickly got to my feet and ran to the door. I flung it open and ran straight into Richard who was about to walk in.

"Ma'am-" He started, Tess' screams from the back interrupted him. "What was-"

"No time to explain, just help us!"

Richard ran to the back with me. The stake laid beside Elijah's leg in the blood, he was pressing a rag to her side. I told him that would make things worse!

Richard pushed Elijah aside and immediately picked Tess up. Pinning the rag between him and Tess, using their weight to stop the blood flow.

"What're you doing?!" Elijah exclaimed.

Richard ignored him and demanded "Door!" at me. I held the door open and Richard flew through it, moving as fast as he could. Elijah and I raced after him to the infirmary. Richard didn't stop to yell door this time. He kicked it in and raced inside.

"We need help!" He shouted as loud as he could as he set Tess on the table.

Two werewolves came racing from the back room. They didn't stop to ask questions, they immediately got to work. I turned to say something to Elijah and I realized he wasn't there. I stepped out the broken door to find him slamming his fists into the wall.

"I knew coming back would be bad news," he whimpered as he slid down onto his knees defeated.

"Hey she's going to be alright. They'll fix her up," I grabbed him by the armpit and made him stand back up. "But she needs you right now. The baby needs you. Get yourself in there and help them."

Our medical team worked on Tess for probably an hour before letting me back in the building. I normally didn't care about the wellbeing of werewolves outside my pack but this woman was different.

She laid on the table bandaged up but still unconscious, Elijah by her side.

"Is she going to be alright?" I asked.

Richard nodded, "They both will be as long as she takes it easy. She lost a lot of blood but she'll pull through. She's pretty lucky, that stake was angled just right to miss the boy by a few inches. Magic runs through males in your family, you know. That boy's little bit of magic is probably what saved her. No one survives that much blood loss."

I watched as they brought Tess over to a bed and hooked her up to some IVs. We rarely used IVs, werewolves didn't do the whole modern medicine thing really. I walked up to her and Elijah after everything was situated. He sat on the side of the bed, head buried in his arms.

"She'll be alright," I said.

Elijah mumbled something in response.

"Why'd you take the stake out when I told you not to?" I asked.

Elijah lifted his head from his arms, anger in his eyes, "Screw off. Not everything you say is right."

Back to now- Chloe's POV

We left the cemetery and walked in the direction of the hospital.

"How long are you going to be mad at Jeremy?" I asked.

Emma shrugged, "I was thinking tomorrow or the next day. Give him a night of restless sleep first."

I raised an eyebrow, "Alright. I'll take that over you'll be mad forever."

About halfway back, a few people passed by us and glanced at me with wide eyes.

"What was that about?" Emma asked.

I shrugged, "Elijah may have said I'm his daughter so people are probably gossiping about who my mom is."

"Oh lord," Emma rolled her eyes.

We walked a bit further before Emma nudged me and pointed at a patio to our left up ahead. Sitting at the table with his back to us was Elijah.

"We should just keep walking," Emma whispered. I wondered what she meant by that until I saw the half empty bottle of alcohol sitting in front of him. He was drinking and fast.

"Emma," I frowned at her and walked towards Elijah. We seated ourselves across from him.

Elijah looked up, "How'd it go?"

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"How'd it go?" He repeated.

"It was fine, you were telling the truth it wasn't your fault," I answered.

Elijah took a sip from the bottle then answered.

"You're sure about that? Isn't it my fault that she talked me into it? Isn't it my fault that she fell off? Or that I didn't get to her in time?"

"Are you ok?" I asked again.

"Why wouldn't I be? Its not like Ashe has managed to dredge up one of the worst days of my life or anything."

Emma reached for the bottle, probably to try to take it away from him, but Elijah snatched it first.

"Hey!" He wagged a finger at her. "No. This is mine."

"We were gone for like 45 minutes," Emma said. "How'd you drink that much already?"

Elijah snorted a little laugh but didn't answer.

"You two should head back," he said instead. "Your boyfriends are probably worried."

"And so is Tess probably," I said.

Elijah took another long drink from the bottle. I stood.

"Come on drunky lets go back," I said. Emma stood too. Elijah's eyes narrowed.

"I'm bringing my drink then," he negotiated.

I shrugged, "Sure. Now come on."

Elijah stumbled a little as he stood and Emma tried to steal the bottle again.

"Hey!" Elijah glared at her. "I says no thank you. This is mine."

Emma looked at me with annoyance and shock, "How does someone get that drunk that fast? I'd really like to know."

"Just let him keep it, it's less of a fight," I shrugged.

We walked Elijah in the direction of the hospital. He managed to stay in a fairly straight line. I knew he was upset earlier but I didn't know these accusations and Anna death had hit him so hard.

As we walked up to the hospital door, Elijah stopped and stumbled back a few steps.

"Hold up," he said as he bent over and throw up. When he finished, he took another sip of the alcohol and said "Ok." As he pointed at the door.

Emma threw her hands up as she walked through the door, "I don't understand alcoholics."

I let Elijah stumble in and walked in behind him.

"Are you drunk?" Tess walked up to him.

"Shush shush," he put a finger to her lips. "You were not supposed to know. She made me come back."

"Why are you drunk?" She asked.

"Lemme see," he slurred. "I got my sister turning people against me. I'm not wanted in my own family. I can't keep you er that" He pointed at the baby. "Or anyone else's safe. Do you see these hands? People die by them for no reasons. I'm failure."

Derek took my attention away from Elijah's drunken speech as he walked around them and pulled me in for a hug, his whole body incredibly tense.

"I ask you for help and you leave me here instead?" He said as he buried his face in my neck.

"That was me helping," I responded. "Forcing you to deal with it helped last time."

Derek lifted his head. "You're a jerk," he rolled his eyes and kissed me.

I looked over at Elijah who finally relinquished the near empty bottle to Tess.

"Fine. I'll go find more," he said and walked back out the door.

"Should we go get him again?" I asked Tess.

She shook her head, "No he'll be fine in a few hours. He's just put himself under too much stress."

Emma and I had missed lunch while we'd been gone so we dove into the food that was left. Derek noticed my hand was unbandaged and grabbed it. His eyes landed on the fresh cuts I'd forgotten to cover up. I glared at him conveying 'do not say a word' as he opened his mouth. Derek shut it and let go of my hand. I had a feeling he wasn't totally letting it go though, he was just going to wait until a better time.