(Emily POV) Present day:

Pain. Searing red hot pain. Lava coursing through my veins. Then darkness.

Over and over again.

I have no idea how long I've been like this. It feels like a lifetime, though I'm sure it's only been a few weeks. Between the pain in my body, and my almost daily 'visitors' I don't know how much longer I can survive. The moment the pain subsides I'm pulled right back under by a new wave of pain. I'll pass out only to wake up to hot hands grabbing my aching skin. Someone is in between my legs. It hurts so much but I can't even muster up the strength to scream for help. My voice is gone and my throat is raw from screaming so much.

I must be going insane. On four separate occasions I've looked down and instead of hands, I have brown paws the color of my hair. I can smell everything. Hear everything. This is what it must feel like to lose your mind. A new wave of pain pulls me back into the dark abyss of nothing. At this point, I would welcome death over this torture. I slip away, allowing the pain to slip me back into unconsciousness giving in to wherever it's willing to take me.

When I wake again I'm alone. I'm completely naked, and there's blood on the floor. Some from my head, some my hands, and some from my visitor who made sure to "show me what a real man feels like" a few hours ago. There's a t-shirt laying on the floor. I sit up and pull it over my body, wincing at the pain in my right arm, and the throbbing between my legs. It barely covers the bottom of my butt, but at this point I don't really care. We've had enough. It's time to fight back. I've been feeling this inner voice for over a week now, pulling me to move and defend myself. Calming me and preparing me for the escape. I've been taking mental notes of every detail of my captors, and the place they've brought me to.

Tonight. We will be free. I growled in agreement with this strong voice that was pulling me toward freedom. Bringing me a sense of strength I needed to hold onto if I planned on making it out of this hell hole alive.

(Reese POV)

My wolf wouldn't stop growling at me to drive faster. I'd been searching for Emily for over four months. I knew something was wrong when I didn't hear from her for a few days, so I'd gone to check on her at her apartment. I smelled the mutt before I ever made it to her door. Causing my insides to twist and squirm. Her apartment had been ransacked, the smell of mutt clear on almost every surface. Small droplets of her blood splattered the floor beside a broken lamp. Whoever was here didn't take her without a fight.

Nick enlisted the help of his witch friend Paige and with her help; Nick, Noah, and I were headed to a small patch of woods along the Canadian border. It isn't a solid lead. There's no guarantee Emily will even be there, but my wolf refused to let me rest until I found her. I knew she was in danger, somehow I just knew.

When we got to the edge of the woods and parked the car we decided to split up to cover more ground. I'd taken a few pieces of her clothing from her apartment in New York to help us better track her smell. Elena was busy caring for the twins, but promised us as soon as the week was over she would join us in our search. As we set out, I prayed that this would finally be the day that I found her. I would never let harm come to her again. I knew this was my fault. The mutts must have traced my scent back to her apartment.

So we split up taking sections of the woods. Deeper and deeper into the forest, no sign or smells alerting us that she had been here anytime recently. As I came to the edge of a clearing I heard Nick behind me. I turned to ask him if he had caught anything when we heard fast and heavy footsteps running full speed toward the other side of the clearing. Noah came to the edge of the clearing behind us and ran to stand beside us now as we listened to whatever was making the crashing sounds get closer and closer. Tense and ready for a fight.

(Emily POV)

I don't know how I did that. I'd just broken a mans leg with a swift kick. He had come in to pay me a visit and the voice inside my head told me to let her take over. So that's exactly what I did. I watched him come into the room and sneer down at me. I guess after weeks of not having enough strength to fight back he wasn't expecting much from me tonight. I waited, tense and ready to spring until the perfect moment. He was tugging up his pants when I jabbed into his manhood with all of my might, and swiftly clawing at his face. It sent him cradling himself down into the floor. This was it. Now or never. I mustered up all of my strength and bore down onto his leg with everything I had. I heard a sickening and satisfying snap and his scream of pain.

I pulled the barely covering t-shirt over my body and ran as fast as I could. I scrambled outside and found that I had been taken to a forest. It was cold outside and there were little heaps of snow on the ground. I stepped off the front porch and froze when I snapped a twig. I needed to be careful incase anyone else was here with the man whose leg I'd just broken. I turned to start running behind the house when the voice inside my head growled. Urging me to go the other way.

She had gotten me out of that house and as far as I was concerned it was more than enough reason to trust her, so I turned back and took off as fast as my legs could carry me. I could feel the twigs and branches cutting deep into my feet, but I didn't care. I couldn't stop. Those men wouldn't take me back alive. I ran past a group of thorns that raked across my face and arms, but I couldn't stop running to acknowledge the pain. I could feel the mans release running down the inside of my legs from his visit before I snapped his leg. I wouldn't let him touch me like that ever again. Keep going damn it. Just keep going. My legs were trembling from exhaustion, I'd lost too much weight and no matter how fit I was before all of this happened, I was weak now. Too weak to fight, so I needed to run.

I could see a small clearing up ahead as my vision became a little blurry. Maybe that was a road. If I could find a road it would lead me to somewhere. Anywhere was safer than here. I sped up at the hope that safety was on the other side of the clearing, not caring what I was running over or into. When I came thrashing out from behind a tree and my feet hit softer grass I skidded to a halt.

There he was, standing with two other men I didn't know. They looked like they were ready for a fight. I wondered if I was still hallucinating like I had about the paws, but I dared to say it anyway.

"Reese" I tried to say, but it came out barely above a whisper. Tears started to silently fall down my face as I felt my legs start to give out. My heart was leaping out of my chest. He found me.

(Reese POV)

We heard the crashing coming closer and closer as we prepared ourselves for what was heading straight to us. It seemed to speed up just before entering the clearing.

One final loud crash and I saw movement by a tree. Emily. She was here. If she was tiny before it had nothing on how small she was now. She looked sick from weight loss and sleep deprivation. Her cheeks were gaunt and her bones were sticking out of every place I could see. Bruises scattered every inch of her body that was visible, which was quite a bit seeing how she was only wearing a small shirt. She was bleeding from her arm and she had scratches all over the side of her face. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at me with those big almond shaped green eyes. Fear rolling from her, evident all over her face. Then she whispered my name "Reese" she said. It was barely above a whisper, but we all heard it. I saw her knees start to tremble. Nick and Noah stood glued to their spots on the far side of the clearing in shock as I ran to scoop her up in my arms.

She grabbed onto my shirt and started to cry. Trying to form words but nothing would come out. She was hurt, but she would be okay. She was hysteric trying to tell me that we needed to leave, someone would be looking for her, we weren't safe, that she didn't want them to hurt me. I started to turn toward the car with her but stopped dead in my tracks when I smelled it.

I knew what they did to her. I could smell it all over her. My wolf roared, threatening a change on the spot. Nick and Noah were at my side in an instant. From the looks on their faces, I knew they smelled it too. They will pay for hurting her. We will kill them all. My wolf raged. I kissed the top of Emily's head and passed her to Noah, telling him to get her to the car. It came out as an order and his wolf immediately submitted to the request as he turned around and started running toward the spot we had parked on the other side of the woods.

"Reese, I'm coming with you" Nick said through gritted teeth. As much of a ladies man Nick is, rape was something he never condoned. Sex was by choice or none at all. It's engrained into us. I shook my head as we started to follow the scent that Emily had left on her way through the woods. I could smell her adrenaline, her fear, her pain. It pushed me forward until I was standing in front of a house in the middle of nowhere.

Nick and I entered the house, there had been at least two mutts here with her in the last few days. Neither scent was very familiar to me. I heard muffled whimpers as I pushed back the door to a bedroom. The smell of everything that happened in that room was almost too much. My wolf was on full view to the mutt laying cradling his leg in the corner.

His eyes widened in fear as he caught sight of Nick and I walking in. I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall. Cutting off almost all of his air supply. "Where's the other one?" Nick demanded. The mutt shook his head and laughed. A hoarse cackle that made my hair stand on end. I took his hand in mine and snapped his wrist in one swift jerk. He tried to scream out in pain, but it came out as muffled gurgles with my hand on his throat.

"Tell me.." he wheezed "did you find the little she wolf?" He grinned at our confusion before continuing "she's unstable you know. Thinks she's going crazy when she turns, we were going to tell her what she is, but watching her think she's crazy instead is just too good. Pretty little thing, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to fuck her up for breaking my leg. I've never bitten anyone and not eaten them, so my partner took the chance. He's very pleased with her. Has big plans to breed her into his pack" he spat the last words at me. Grinning like a Cheshire Cat when realization finally lit up my eyes. They'd bitten Emily. They'd turned her. It's why her smell was off, it wasn't the remaining scent of werewolf on her, it was her.

Nick was frozen in place when realization hit him too. He looked at me and we shared a small nod before I reached deep into the mutts chest and pulled out his heart. I threw it to the ground beside his body and walked outside. My head was spinning as I made my way back to the car. Nick walked along side me in silence, only stopping once we could see Noah and Emily inside the car to call his father and Jeremy to let them know the news.

I climbed into the backseat as Emily leaned into my arms. She was a little warmer now that Noah had started the heat in the car for her. I rubbed soothing circles into her back as she sobbed into my chest. She looked up at me with bright eyes as I pulled off my hoodie and she slipped it over her body. Shivering at the warmth and deeply inhaling my scent. The moment her eyes locked on mine it was like something shifted. I already felt a feeling of protectiveness and devotion to this beautiful girl, but now in this moment, it was absolute. She tried giving me a small smile, but it didn't meet her eyes. It was a silent drive back to Catskills aside from her occasional whimpers. Even now she was trying to be strong. Trying not to cry. My brave beauty.

We decided against telling her the werewolf part until we got home, new wolfs are unpredictable in their changes and the last thing she needed was the added stress of a change before we could get her somewhere safe.

Mate. She is our mate and we will protect her always. I agreed wholeheartedly with my wolf as I held Emily in my arms. Vowing silently to myself to never let her go again.