The soft murmuring of voices woke me from my slumber. Slowly, I opened my eyes to see where I was. No one was looking at me, but my room was filled with my friends.

Who knew how long I had been here, but it was obvious that I had been cared for, as I felt the guaze on my skin and the pull of the stitches. Cora stood in the corner, giving Liam a warning look as he was about to open his mouth to say something.

Theo sat in the chair beside my bed, his fingers laying on mine gently, but his head was turned facing Liam, so I assumed they were bickering about something stupid. Mason and Corey sat on the empty bed to my other side, chatting quietly with each other.

"She's awake." Cora said, and they all came to stand around my bed.

"Guys." I tried to get out, but my voice was scratchy and I had to clear my throat. That's when fire rocketed up my collarbone and into my shoulder and back. A splint had been placed there, which meant I had probbaly broken my shoulder or something around there.

"Try not to move too much," Theo said, leaning in closer so his elbows rested on the mattress. "What happened?" I asked, accepting I would just have to sound as if I had screamed for hours on end.

"Well, the wyvern is dead." Cora said, sitting at the foot of my bed, "Everyone is okay. You're the one who took the most damage. You're lucky to be alive."

"You're going to be alright." Theo interjected, grasping my hand lightly. I looked to him, reaching over with my left hand to stroke his face. He grabbed that hand and held it there, looking up at me from under his lashes.

"I almost didn't make it out of there." I said, looking back to Cora. "We noticed. They found you under debris maybe thirty feet from the cellar." She replied.

"But the wyvern is dead? Like, she didn't get away?" "No, Argent killed her with the arrow we had hidden. Shoved it right in her heart." Liam said.

I sighed, relief flooding through me. She would not hurt another person ever again.

Melissa knocked on the door, then entered, her smile lighting up her face when she saw me. "Oh, good, you're awake, Cass!"

"How long was I out?" I asked. "About eighteen hours. But you needed it." She replied. "Eighteen hours?" I gasped.

"Your body requires a lot of healing time, most of which is done during sleep. It was good that you slept that long. You need to sleep like that every night for the next couple of weeks in order to jumpstart getting back on your feet." Melissa teased.

I chuckled, then looked around to all of the people in my room. I felt emotional as I looked over every one of them. No longer just my friends, but my family.

"It's about time for us to head out," Liam said, "but we will come see you again tomorrow, Cass. You get some more rest, okay?" I nodded, then squeezed the hand he had placed in mine as farewell. Mason and Corey each gave me a kiss on the cheek and Cora hugged me.

Melissa gave me some meds, then quietly left the room with them all.

Now, it was just Theo and me.

I looked at him then, and found him staring at me. "You scared the hell out of me." He admitted and I chuckled, "Sorry, was a little too busy trying to stay alive to let you know things were okay."

"When I found you under that wall, I didn't know if you were going to make it." "I almost ran out of time. When I finally managed to get the ropes off, I had ten seconds to get out. The last thing I coherently remember is trying to push the wall away." I said.

"That stupid bitch could talk the whole time. She just used you to try and play with our heads. She lied about how much time we had. Cass, you could have died. What would I have done?" He said, shocking me. This was the most sappy he had ever been.

"You would have moved on, like Theo Raeken does." I replied, gently touching his face again. "No, I don't think I would have this time." He responded, gripping my hand tightly before pressing a soft kiss to my guaze covered wrist.

Then I remembered my one solid drive to get out of that cellar. I hadn't said the words yet, had I? But would he accept them? I supposed that there was only one way to find out.

"Theo?" I said, and he looked up. "I got out of there, because I had to tell you some things. First off, I'm so sorry that I ran from you, back at the creek."

"You don't have to apologize for that." He said, but I could see that the memory hurt him. "I do. I was too busy trying to convince myself that you were all bad that I ran over the fact that you would never hurt me." I said, then leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

Carefully, I scooted over and he crawled into the bed beside me, wrapping his arms protectively around me without hurting my wounds. "I will always be a bastard, even to you at times." He said, laying his head on top of mine, "But I won't hurt or kill you."

"Then that's good enough for me. However, part two of my confessions is a little harder to say." I said, looking up at him. "Then rest on it." He suggested.

"No, because the last time I decided to rest on it, I almost died. You would have never known. I can't waste another second on what ifs. I..." I swallowed hard, then placed my hand on his cheek, "I love you, Theo."

Something in his eyes went wild, but I was unsure as to whether or not it was good or bad until he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.

I returned his kiss, but had to jerk free when my shoulder got bumped, disturbing my hurt collarbone. "Sorry." He said, then brushed his thumb across my cheekbone, "You're the only one who has had the power to hurt me, and you're damn good at it. Try to be gentler in the future."

I smiled, and kissed him again.

"And by the way?" He said as I settled into his arms again to get some sleep.

"I love you too."

~Theo POV~

I had expected to cringe inwardly, or for the words to taste wrong. But all of it had come naturally with Cassia. No one else would ever hear the words that I had murmured to her. No one else would make me feel the way I did about her.

I had been given something that I had never acknowledged, wanted or wished for. That didn't mean I would stop being me, or that I would turn into your everyday sappy, original Prince Charming, but it did mean that I had someone who would give me a run for my money and would be my mate, my partner, for the rest of our lives.

With Cassia, I wasn't her outcast, her enemy or even her ally. I was just her Theo.

I laid her gently aside as I got up from her hospital bed to let her sleep. I had a few things to take care of, first thing being checking my email again to confirm my employment. I had gone and retrieved a few of her things from her house while she had been asleep before, one of them being her laptop.

Opening it and signing in, I was almost to my email when a notification popped up with Damian's name on it. I clicked on it and read it, seeing that he had backtracked now, going a state back from where he had been before. Cassia would be relieved I knew, and I deleted it.

Once I finished with that, I went for a drive. I thought about all I needed to do to try and make this life with her work, without messing it up with my past. Thankfully, with what I would be making soon, I would be able to move us out of that house she was currently living in in no time.

She deserved a better house than a single bedroom place.

Then I went on to the next thing on my mind, and probably the one I disliked the most: marriage. She had told me at one point that if it wasn't somewhere in our future, then she wasn't sure if it would last. I would never say 'I love you' to someone I would intentionally lose, but hopefully she would let the idea rest for a while.

If push came to shove, I'd bring up a proposal soon, but I figured we'd just have to see what happened. Right now, all she needed to focus on was healing and getting better. She wouldn't like it, because I know that I wouldn't, but she was going to be babied for a while.

My phone went off, bringing me out of my dark pit of thoughts. Liam's name was on it, which confused me, considering I had seen him no more than three hours before. He knew I could only take so much of him a day.

"What." I said into the phone. "Have you asked her about her parents' killer yet?" He said. "I have a sneaking suspicion that she's been through enough recently, so to answer your question, fuck no. What the hell Liam, you think I'm going to bombard her with her painful past as soon as she's back in my arms? I'm not you."

"Okay dick, you could have just said 'no'. Ask her soon, this guy may be more dangerous than we thought. Have you heard what this guy has done?" "I know he killed her parents. That's really all I want to know. He's after her still."

"Yeah, because she's the only survivor that ever evaded him. I was talking to Sheriff Stilinski and he said this guy is like a wraith. No matter what, he always slips through their fingers, even if he gets caught. And he always leaves a trail of dead bodies."

"That's enough." I demanded, "I've had my fill of your annoying voice today."

He was protesting, but I hung up anyway and turned my phone off. Liam always knew when I had an ounce of happy in me, and he always found a way to ruin it.

Growling, I made an illegal U-turn and headed back to the hospital. My ride had been long enough and I wanted to guard her anyway.

**I know it's very short this time, but there are only a couple of chapters left after this one! Yes, the end of Path of Destruction is coming, but fear not! Cassia and Theo's story is not over. There will be a 2nd 'book' to this! Thank you all for joining me in this, I appreciate your reads, follows, favorites and reviews!**