Liam was asleep as I paced back and forth across my room, arms folding across my chest. He was curled up on my large beanbag chair, positioned next to my bed. After him and Theo brought me home from the hospital, he had insisted on sleeping in my room to make sure I was okay.

How he was managing to sleep, I did not know. Just thirty minutes earlier we had gotten off the phone with Scott, finding out that someone had decided to shoot up his house in the middle of the night. The attack had Mason, Lydia, and Scott's parents all in the hospital. No one knew who had done it but I wasn't going to be able to sleep until someone had figured something out.

But Liam had been awake for hours, making sure I was safe while I slept. And I decided to let him rest while I stayed up, just in case someone decided to target us next.

There were still some tears dripping down my cheeks while I paced but I ignored them. I wanted to know who had attacked my friends.

A few taps on my bedroom window caused me to jump and I felt a soft pull at the stitches on my side. I whirled around, surprised to see Theo's face outside.

I rushed over and lifted the window. "What are you doing here?"

"Scott called me, have you talked to him?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he called a little while ago."

"I figured you might be worried, so I knew one of you would be awake." He said, almost smiling at Liam's sleeping figure. "I thought I could keep watch and let the both of you get some sleep."

"You don't have to do that." I said softly.

He nodded. "I know I don't. But I'm going to. So let me in, it's freezing out here."

I almost laughed and moved out of the way, letting Theo climb in through the window before pushing it shut.

He immediately took a seat in the chair I had in the corner, kicking his shoes off and getting comfortable.

I smiled. "Do you need a blanket or anything? I have extras in the closet."

He shook his head. "What I need is for you to go to bed. You're hurt and you need to rest."

I rolled my eyes but climbed back into my bed, pulling the blankets tight around me. "Hey, Theo?"

He looked over at me expectantly.

"Thank you."

He smiled. "You're welcome, Ren."

After that, I spent nearly two hours trying to sleep; no matter how much I readjusted, threw off my blankets, covered up again, or fluffed my pillow, I could not manage to rest.

With an aggravated groan, I threw my blankets off and pushed myself up against the headboard, looking over at Theo with a pout.

"Having a hard time?" He asked.

"I am filled with emotions."

"Do you want me to spoon you?"

"I would prefer if you didn't."

He laughed quietly. "What do you need?"

I thought for a minute. "I'm tempted to say a bottle of whiskey but I'm not sure that's a very healthy response."

Theo stood and walked over, taking a seat at the end of my bed. "Do you need food? Water? Ibuprofen?"

"Are you actually mothering me right now?" I asked.

He laughed again, the sound causing Liam to stir slightly. "I might be."

We sat in silence for a few minutes.

"You're worrying too much." Theo said suddenly. "I would know even if I couldn't smell it on you."

I smiled. "Do you really blame me?"

He shook his head. "No, not at all. But you do smell really terrible."

I kicked at him, barely hitting his thigh. "Shut up. It's not my fault."

It was quiet again for a few minutes.

I heard blankets rustling as Liam began stirring again. I looked over to see his face scrunched up and I could hear him start breathing faster.

Theo noticed at the same moment and he glanced at me, concern in his eyes.

I moved from the bed and knelt next to Liam as a quiet whimper came from his throat.

"Liam?" I said softly, brushing my fingers through his hair. "Liam, wake up."

He didn't wake but he pulled the blankets tight around his shoulders, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Liam!" I shook his shoulder and he cowered away.

"Is he okay?" Theo asked.

I shook my head. "He hasn't had a nightmare in over a year. I don't know why it's suddenly happening again."

I turned my attention back to my brother. "Liam, please wake up."

After another minute of trying and Liam only getting more worked up, I started to panic. I could only think of one other way to wake him.

"He's gonna hate me for this." I said before pulling my hand back and delivering a swift slap to his cheek.

He jerked awake, his eyes were wide and he was gasping for air.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked, grabbing his shoulders. "You were having a nightmare. What was it?"

Liam took a few seconds to catch his breath before answering me. "I had a dream you were there, at Scott's house. You got shot. It was terrible. You were dying."

I brushed my hand through his hair. "It's okay, Li. I'm going to be just fine. I'm not dying."

He nodded, grabbing one of my hands. That was when he noticed Theo sitting on the bed. "What's he doing here?"

"He came over to keep an eye on us so that we could both sleep." I explained, keeping my voice soft.

"Did I wake you?"

I shook my head. "No. I couldn't sleep anyway."

"We have to find out who did this. If not, you're not going to be able to sleep, I'm going to start having nightmares again. Ren, we have to figure this out. Scott has enough going on, we have to do this."

I nodded. "I know, Li, I know. Just try to calm down, okay?"

My brother took a few more deep breaths and I could feel his pulse in his wrist falling slowly.

"It's going to be okay." I said, my fingers still combing through his hair gently.

He sat up, letting his blanket fall from his shoulders.

"You're sweaty." I noted, seeing the light sheen on his skin. "Why don't you go take a cool shower? I promise it will make you feel better."

He nodded and I let my hand fall to my lap as he left the room. A minute later I heard the shower turn on down the hall.

I turned my attention to Theo. "I'm really scared."

"Are you scared for you or are you scared for him?" He asked.

Somehow, the question didn't surprise me. "Both, I guess. But mostly him. And you. And everyone else."

"I don't understand how you're so okay knowing that you could get hurt, that you could die."

I shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not sure myself. I guess I just shut it down somehow. It's easy to not worry about myself when I'm worrying about all of you."

"We all worry about you." He said.

"I'll be okay." I assured him.

He looked away from me, gazing out the window for a few seconds.

"How are you handling everything? After what happened at the station." He asked.

I moved to sit on the bed again, propped up against the headboard. "It's… It's actually really hard."

Tears immediately sprung up in my eyes and I tried to stop them.

"Theo, I don't… I don't know what to do. Because I was trying so hard to stop her and I couldn't. I promised her she would go home to see her husband and she didn't. She still shot herself. And there was so much blood. And I remember looking down at my chest and there was a… There was a piece of her brain stuck to my shirt."

I couldn't stop myself from crying then. I sobbed loudly and Theo moved closer to me, pulling me towards him and wrapping his arms around me.

I cried into his shoulder, my shaking hands fisted in the material of his hoodie. "It's so fucking hard, Theo."

His hand rested on the back of my head. "I know. Just try to breathe. It's going to be okay."

I don't know how long we sat like that before Liam entered the room again.

"What's going on?" He asked.

Theo spoke for me. "She's having a little bit of a rough time. But it's okay, I've got her."

I held onto him tightly but offered Liam a weak smile. "I'll be okay. I think I just needed a good cry."

He sat down on my beanbag chair that he was using as a makeshift bed, small water droplets falling from his freshly washed hair onto his shoulders. "How much have you slept?"

I shook my head. "I don't know exactly. A couple hours. Maybe less."

"How long was I out?"

"About three hours. We both need more." I said, yawning as if on cue.

Theo ran one of his hands up and down my back since I was still leaned against him. "Why don't you guys try to go back to sleep? I'll take up my post in the corner to keep watch."

"Aren't you tired?" Liam asked him.

Theo shrugged. "Not really. Besides, I can sleep while you two are at school."

I sat up straight, letting go of the boy next to me. "Okay, sounds like a plan to me."

Theo stood up from his spot on my bed so that I could get comfortable while Liam curled up on the beanbag chair again.

"If you get tired you can wake one of us." I told Theo as he sat down in the chair. "Or you can get some coffee from the kitchen."

"Ren, don't worry about me. Just go to sleep."

I smiled, pulling my blanket tight around my shoulders and burying my head in the pillow.

The rest of the night was spent trying to sleep but I was unsuccessful. Around six A.M., about an hour before my alarm was set to go off, I gave up completely and climbed out of bed. Liam was still sleeping peacefully.

"Everything okay?" Theo asked.

"Just can't sleep. I figured I might as well do something useful if I'm going to be awake so I'm going to make breakfast." I explained, grabbing a sweater from my dresser and pulling it on over the thin tank top I had worn to bed. "Are you hungry?"

He nodded. "Yeah, kind of."

"Okay. Just stay with Liam, let him sleep a little longer. I'll let you know when breakfast is ready."

I left my bedroom and walked carefully down the stairs. Before heading into the kitchen, I made a stop in the bathroom and grabbed some ibuprofen from the cabinet, washing them down with water from the faucet.

When I walked into the kitchen, I got straight to work on breakfast. Within minutes, the kitchen was filled with the smell of bacon. After finishing that, I scrambled some eggs while the bread was toasting.

I was just dumping the eggs onto plates when the last pieces of toast popped up and I could hear footsteps coming down the stairs. I placed all of the plates on the kitchen table along with a few glasses and the carton of orange juice.

Liam walked into the room and pulled me into a hug. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay." I said. "Better than I expected. What about you?"

"Same. Thanks for making breakfast."

I nodded. "Don't mention it."

We all sat down to eat, the conversation was kept to a minimum. I was just finishing my toast when Theo spoke.

"So, has anyone talked to Scott since last night?"

I shook my head. "No. He's at the hospital, waiting for everyone to get out of surgery. I was thinking of stopping by before school."

"Did you tell him about what happened to you?"

"I did." Liam said. "I called him before we picked her up from the hospital. He's not happy."

My phone started ringing and I jumped up to get it from the spot I'd left it on the counter. When I picked it up, I saw Nolan's name on the screen. I ignored the call and dropped my phone back to the counter. I wasn't in the mood to talk to him.

"Who was it?" Liam asked.

"No one." I said. "It doesn't matter."

I slid my phone into the pocket of my sweatpants and folded my arms across my chest.

"What are you thinking about?" Theo asked.

I chewed on my bottom lip while I thought about how to answer. "A lot of different things. I just… Was it Monroe who shot up Scott's house? Or did she tell someone to do it?"

"Do you think it was Nolan?" Liam asked.

I shook my head. "No. I seriously doubt it. He was at the hospital with me for a while so I don't think he would've had time. But I – oh, shit."

I realized that I'd fucked up. The night before I had told Theo and Liam and that I didn't know who had taken me to the hospital but I'd just given away the truth.

"It was Nolan? He was the one who drove you the emergency room?" Liam asked, standing up from his seat at the table and taking a step towards me. "Why did you lie? Why did you tell us that you didn't know?"

My foot tapped nervously. "I just… I don't know, Liam. I guess I thought you would try to turn it around, turn it into something bad."

"Didn't you think that maybe he put you in his car to kill you or something?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, Liam, I did not. Because he didn't even see me laying on the ground, bleeding, until I threw a fucking rock at him. And then when he did see me, he freaked out, made a tourniquet out of his belt. Yeah, really sounds like he was trying to kill me."

"I made a tourniquet for Lydia and I was definitely not doing it for the right reasons." Theo jumped in.

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped open for a second. "Okay, listen, just because you were an asshole does not mean that everyone else is also an asshole."

"What if he had hurt you?" Liam asked.

"He's not going to hurt me. If he wanted to hurt me, why wouldn't he just shoot me with that crossbow? He doesn't actually want to hurt anyone." I explained.

Theo nodded. "Yeah, you're right. People carry crossbows because they don't want to hurt people. That makes sense."

I groaned loudly, staring up at the ceiling. "Liam, do you remember what he said yesterday? While he had the bow pointed at you?"

Liam shook his head. "I was kind of focused on trying not to kill him."

"He said he had to kill you, that she would kill him if he didn't. She is Monroe. She threatened him. Nolan's scared, you guys. He doesn't want to do this but he feels like he has to."

"So how do you know that he didn't shoot up Scott's house to save his own ass since he failed at the zoo? He saved you, because clearly he likes you, and then he grabbed a gun and headed to Scott's house so that he could prove himself to Monroe. We have no reason to believe that he didn't do that." Theo said.

"Alright, fine, if you're so concerned, we'll do some scouting today at school. I'll talk to Nolan, see if I can find anything out. He's a terrible liar so I'll be able to tell. Liam, you get to talk to Gabe."

"What about me?" Theo asked.

I shook my head. "You don't need to do anything yet. If we need you, I'll call you. Until then, just go home and try to lay low."

A look that I couldn't quite place flickered across his face for a second.

"What was that?" I asked. "Do you not want to go home?"

When Liam turned to face him, he avoided meeting either of our eyes.

I walked over and sat down in the chair next to him. "Theo, tell me what's going on."

He scratched at the back of his neck. "I would love to go home but I can't, okay?"

My eyes searched his face for some sort of explanation and then it hit me.

"Your parents left town after you disappeared."

"They weren't my real parents anyway." He pointed out. "But yeah, they left."

"And now you don't have anywhere to go."

He nodded. "It seems that way."

Tears formed in my eyes and I blinked them away. "Wait, so where have you been staying since they brought you back?"

His eyes finally met mine. "I usually just try to find somewhere to park my truck and go to sleep in the backseat. I don't get to sleep through the night most times, there's almost always a cop who tells me I need to go somewhere else. It's exhausting, honestly."

"Right." I nodded and cleared my throat. "Okay, well, you don't have to worry about that anymore. You can stay here for as long as you need to."

"What?" Both boys asked at once.

I turned to Liam. "We can talk to mom and dad tonight, see if we can set him up in the guest room for a bit."

"And if they say no?" Liam asked.

"Then we hide him here anyway." I turned back to Theo. "We have an air mattress from when we used to go camping so we can inflate it and you can sleep on that if you need to. It's small enough that we could hide it under my bed in case mom and dad come snooping round. But I promise, it's actually really comfortable. And I have loads of extra pillows and blankets in the closet. And you can shower during the day when our parents are at work. And I'll smuggle food for you. I've been wanting to get a minifridge for my room, now this is like, the perfect excuse."

"You're rambling." Liam pointed out.

I nodded. "I realize that. I'm stopping. So what do you think, Theo? Do you wanna stay here for a while?"

Theo's eyes were wide when he looked at me, the smallest hint of a smile raising the corners of his mouth. "Ren, I can't ask you to do this. After all of the shit I put you guys through before."

I shook my head. "Don't. Don't do that. I'm not mad about that, not anymore. You're helping us now. You're with us. You showed up at my window in the middle of the night to make sure we were okay. You put yourself at risk at the zoo when you didn't have to. I feel like I can trust you to have my back, and that means I'll have yours. And that means no more sleeping in your truck when you have a place here."

It almost looked like there were tears in his eyes when he gently pulled me into his chest. "Thank you, Ren. I still don't think I deserve this from you, but I really appreciate it."

I smiled as I squeezed his shoulders. "It's not a problem, Theo. I've got you."

I pulled back to look at him. "So after we leave for school, you're going to go upstairs, take a shower if you want, get into my bed, and get yourself some damn rest."

"Are you sure? You don't have to do this." He asked.

"If you question me again, I might slap you." I warned. "I'm trying to help you, dammit."

I stood up from the table, playfully rubbing the top of Theo's head while I looked over to my brother. "Think you guys can handle the dishes for me? I need to shower. Also, I can't get my stitches wet so someone needs to wrap me in plastic wrap."

"What, you want me to wrap you up like a leftover meatloaf?" Liam asked.

I nodded once. "That is essentially the idea."

"I can help you." Theo offered. "I'll get the saran wrap. Do you need help getting upstairs?"

I frowned, glancing down at my side where my stitches were hidden. "Probably. I'm in a lot of pain right now."

My brother walked towards me instantly, grabbing my hand before I could even try to stop him. The veins in our hands turned black and I sighed in relief, feeling my pain lessen with every second.

Before he could take all of my pain, I pulled my hand away.

"You're still in pain." He said.

I nodded. "Yeah, but I'll be okay. You need to save your strength, Li. We don't know what could happen, you need to be as strong as possible."

"I'm just worried about you."

"But you're at bigger risk than I am, Liam. You're the werewolf, not me. Maybe I can't heal like you can but these people, Liam… Everything they have. All of the wolfsbane laced bullets and arrows and god knows what else. They could kill you, Li." My voice trembled more and more as I spoke and I could feel tears dripping down my cheeks. "Please just trust that I know what I'm doing. Trust that I know how to take care of myself. And let me fucking help for once."

"Lauren, that guy could've killed you yesterday. Are you trying to ignore this problem? Your idea to protect us got you hurt."

"I don't care, Liam! How many times do we have to fucking go over this?" I yelled. "I'm going to be fine and I got you guys out of there safely. That's all that matters to me. I would do this shit everyday if I had to."

He ran a hand through his already messy hair and opened his mouth to speak.

Before he could get any words out, I held up one hand to stop him. "Don't. Liam, please. I don't want to do this right now. I want to shower and go to school and find out what the fuck is going on. Can we go one day without fighting about this?"

"He's right though, Lauren." Theo said, causing me to glare at him. "But you are too. Listen, guys… There's so much shit going on and arguing about this all the time isn't helping anything. Liam, you've gotta let her have some more freedom. She's smart, she's strong, she can take care of herself. But Ren, you can't keep getting yourself into these dangerous situations all the time. You can't heal like we do but we need you."

I sighed, folding my arms across my chest. "I know. I get it. You guys know I just want to help though, right?"

Both boys nodded in response.

"Okay, good. Well, I really need to shower so who is going to wrap me like the remnants of the Christmas ham?" I asked.

"I got you." Theo laughed, moving towards the kitchen to retrieve a roll of plastic wrap.

When he came back into the room, he lightly wrapped his arm around my shoulders before guiding me towards the stairs and up to the bathroom.

"So, uh, how naked are you wanting to get before I do this?" He asked.

I almost laughed. "If you're wondering if my boobs will be out, the answer is probably yes. Is that a problem?"

"Your boobs will not offend me."

"That's good." I paused, scratching the back of my neck. "Can you, uh… Can you help me get my shirt off?"

Theo nodded. "Arms up."

I carefully lifted my arms over my head.

"You're hurting a lot more than you want him to know, aren't you?" He asked, gathering the hem of my sweater the tank top underneath in his hands.

"Yeah, I am." I admitted. "Please don't tell him."

He pulled both shirts over my head and tossed them to the laundry basket next to the sink. His eyes never once dropped down to even glance at my breasts. He was very deliberate as he wrapped the plastic around my abdomen, making sure the wound was covered tightly before stepping away from me. "Okay, how does that feel? Is it too tight?"

I shook my head. "No, feels alright. Thanks, Theo."

He smiled briefly. "Don't mention it. Need anything else?"

"No, I'll be okay. Just, uh, check on Liam. I'm worried about him, now more than ever. Mason being hurt is going to fuck with him." I said.

He nodded once, turning to leave the bathroom. "Yeah, I'll try to talk to him now."

The door shut behind him and I turned on the shower to let the water get warm before removing the sweats I'd worn to bed and my underwear. They joined my sweater in the laundry basket.

I caught my reflection in the mirror and I turned to take a closer look. Despite being covered in plastic, the cut on my side was a deep, angry red against my pale skin. The doctor had done his best to stitch it up but the line still looked jagged and I wondered how bad the scar would look. Would it be something I spent the rest of my life trying to cover or would I allow the world to see what had happened to me?

I wondered what would happen if we all made it out alive and I ever saw that hunter again. I wondered if I might see him at the beach and his eyes would find the scar on my side and feel guilty for what he'd done. But there always the chance he might end up dead before that could ever happen, always the chance I might end up dead.

Steam from the hot shower began to fog up the mirror so I pushed away from the sink and carefully stepped into the shower, muscles instantly beginning to relax at the feel of the water. I looked at my feet as water poured down my body, small traces of dirt and blood washed from my skin and swirled down the drain. Unfortunately, those weren't the last remnants of the zoo. The aching wound on my side and the fear lingering in the back of my mind were sure to stick around.

I'd managed to stop myself from crying while I was getting cleaned up but once I placed my loofa back onto the shelf, something changed. Before I could even try to stop them, tears poured down my cheeks and I had to put my hand over my mouth to stifle the sobs. If Liam or Theo heard me crying, they would come rushing in instantly.

My legs shook and I lowered myself to the floor of the shower, falling onto my knees and curling in on myself. The water hitting my back was getting colder by the second but I couldn't be bothered to care.

The sound of a single gunshot echoed through my head. I remembered the feeling of blood splattering my face. I could hear myself scream when it looked like Liam was about to kill Nolan right in front of me. The image of my own blood covering my shaking hands was ingrained in my mind. The thought of Lydia, Mason, and Scott's parents lying in hospital beds horrified me. The thought of anything happening to my friends, to the pack, made my heart pound so hard in my chest that I was sure it would give up completely.

A scream so loud and violent tore from my throat that I could taste blood in my mouth. My whole body shook with the force of it. I was sure that Lydia would've been impressed if she hadn't been laying in a hospital bed with a bullet wound.

The bathroom door banged open, nearly flying off its hinges. The shower curtain was shoved out of the way, the water turned off, and a soft towel was wrapped around me. A strong pair of hands pulled me from the shower and placed me gently on the cold tile floor. Arms were wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me into a firm chest and rocking me all while my mouth still hung open in a silent scream.

There was a hand in my hair and a gentle voice in my ears. Another pair of hands took hold of mine, thumbs rubbing the back of them.

I couldn't breathe. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't pull air into my lungs. My body was too full. Too full of pain, too full of fear. I wanted to empty myself, to tear my heart from my chest, to make room for my lungs to expand. I wanted to bring people into me, to tuck them into the cavern of my chest. I wanted to use my ribs as a shield, to protect them from the carnage unfolding on the other side of my skin. My heart and lungs were merely placeholders, keeping the only shelter I had to offer warm for anyone who needed it.

But I couldn't help while I was sobbing on the bathroom floor. So my mouth snapped shut, my head raised, and my shoulders squared themselves.

Theo's arms fell from my shoulders to rest around my waist as I sat up, pulling my hands from Liam's to wipe tears from my cheeks.

"Want to tell us what happened?" Theo asked softly.

"Panic attack." I admitted. "Everything just… I can't get it out of my head."

I adjusted the towel wrapped around me, not because it was falling off but because I needed to do something with my hands.

"What are you thinking?"

I looked up at Liam, shivering as cold drops of water fell from my hair and slid down my back. "I have an idea, a plan."

"Great! What's your idea?" Theo asked.

I shook my head. "I can't tell you that. I just need you guys to trust me on this one."

My brother's eyes were trained on mine, I could see fear and anger in his. I wondered what he could see in mine.

"I know it's a lot to ask. I know you're worried. But this is something I have to do myself, Liam. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this isn't dangerous because it is. But you have to stay out of it because if you don't, that will only make it worse. If I can pull this off, we can stop this. We could stop all of it. But you have to trust me."

I was still sitting sideways between Theo's legs and his arms were heavy around my waist.

"What's the risk? How high are the chances of something going wrong?" He asked.

"Pretty high. There are a lot of variables to consider. One minor slip up and the whole plan could fucking crumble." I explained, finishing with a sigh.

"Ren, what happens if it does crumble?"

I turned my head to face him. "You sure you wanna know?"

He nodded slowly.

"I am positive that Monroe will put a bullet in my head."