Chapter 18

Chloe's POV

My heart shatters at how broken Beca sounds and I instantly go behind her, wrapping my arms and holding her. She grabs my hands but doesn't push me away. Instead, we just stand there, waiting for someone to speak. Beca is the first.

"There's no one else like me, is there?"

"No," Rachel admits. "A werewolf and a vampire hybrid has never been heard of."

"So we have no idea what this means for me? Like what I'll turn out to be? How old I will end up being? Nothing." With each word, Beca gets quieter.

"We don't know," I whisper into her ear, "but we'll figure it out. Together." I kiss the top of her head and then rest my chin on her shoulder.

"No wonder Reed hates me," Beca says to Rachel. "He knew, didn't he?"

"That night he kicked me out and sent someone to kill me, I told him I was pregnant and not with his kid."

"So you were pregnant with me before becoming a vampire?"

"Barely," Rachel rubs her forehead, thinking. "I think you were just young enough to refrain from becoming a vampire completely. Not to mention, you had a 50/50 chance of becoming a werewolf after being born. I wish I could give you more answers, but I can't."

"We don't know how this will all go, but please don't run. Let us help." Darren holds out his hands, pleading with Beca. She sighs and I already know what she's going to do.

"Okay. But we need to focus on what to do. After we stop this war, we can focus on what this means for me." Rachel and Darren's shoulders visibly drop in relief. For a second, everything is silent as we all take this in until Beca's phone goes off, mine following soon after. I flip it open to see Gail's number popped up.

"Hello?"

"Chloe. Is Beca with you?" I meet Beca's eyes which widen as whoever is on the phone talks.

"Yeah. What's up?"

"Another vampire is dead. Everything matches with John's murder. We need to figure this out quickly." The panic in Gail's voice worries me. She's always been the uptight, strong one that we could always lean on.

"Do we need to come back?" I ask but Beca shakes her head before Gail can answer me.

"I'm on the phone with Jesse. He's sending pictures so we'll do what we can here."

"I'll have the girls do some more research. We have to figure out who brought The Old Ones back and take them down."

"We will. Bye Gail."

"Be careful Chloe." I tell Gail that I will and hang up. Beca is still on the phone with Jesse so I fill Rachel and Darren in.

"Shit. I can call a few of my contacts and try to track down who's behind this," Darren suggests and I nod. He goes off, immediately calling someone.

"Why are they doing this?" I ask out loud to no one in particular.

"Whoever is behind this wants to be in charge of everyone. They want to start a war to prove who the dominant species is. If they keep going this way, it might just work." Rachel answers me and I shake my head. This is all just unbelievable. Who could hate a species so much that they're willing to kill innocents?

"Guys, we have a big problem," Beca says, getting off the phone. "Jesse says that there's been a few riots in town and word of others in different towns. People are getting wind of a 'werewolf' killing and somehow learned about the vampire turning Luke. They want answers that we can't give them."

"This is exactly what they want," I sigh and run my hands through my hair, frustrated. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Jesse is sending out a statement that nothing is definitive yet. Hopefully if people know we're doing an investigation it'll prolong the panic.."

"Okay. Darren is calling some people to try and get a lead on who is involved in this group." Beca nods and laughs making both Rachel and I frown.

"Everything is going to shit," Beca laughs and throws her hands up. "There's nothing we can fucking do about it."

"We'll figure it out," I assure her but she just shakes her head. "Look it's getting late and there's not much else we can do until we get the information from Jesse. A good night's sleep might be what we all need."

"I agree," Darren says, coming into the room. "Let's eat something first and then head to bed."

"I'm not really hungry," Beca says and I frown. She's always hungry.

"I don't really need to eat so I think we'll just go ahead to bed if you don't mind." Rachel and Darren nod at me and yell good night to us as we leave the room. The way up the stairs seem to take forever as Beca drags her feet. She must not be feeling well again. What is going on with her?

We get changed in silence and then lay down in bed. Her head rests on my chest as my arms wrap around her. She lets out a big sigh and I chuckle. I kiss her head and am surprised by the heat radiating from it.

"Beca? Are you feeling alright?" She just shrugs and I adjust my shoulder to where she's looking up at me. Her eyes are glassy and a thin layer of sweat covers her forehead. Despite obviously not feeling well, she smiles.

"You're beautiful, you know that?"

"Don't try changing the subject," I scold and she laughs.

"Is it working?"

"A little. Seriously though, are you okay?"

"Babe, I'm fine. Just tired and overwhelmed. Let's just go to sleep." Beca tucks her head back into my chest and a minute later, her breathing gets deeper as she falls asleep. My hand rests on her hair as I worry. She tries to act so tough and one of these days, it's going to bite her in the butt. Maybe I'm overreacting because she's my mate. Wow, my mate. Or I'm hers. Either way, I never really processed it. Does that mean we're meant to be together forever? If so, maybe she won't get older and die. Fate wouldn't put us together only to have me watch her die right? It's not really that cruel.

Even as that thought runs through my head, I know it's not true.

...

I wake up to the shower that's connected to our room, running and Beca is no longer next to me. Grinning, I get up and sneak in, taking off my clothes. She's completely oblivious as I sneak in behind her.

"You didn't wake me up," I whine, wrapping my arms around her. She turns around and wraps her arms around my neck.

"Sorry, you were sleeping and I didn't want to wake you." My heart beats faster when I see her face, just as beautiful and stunning as always. A sliver of warmth hits me in a certain spot when my eyes travel down.

"Chloe Beale, are you checking me out?"

"Maybe I am, maybe not. What are you going to do about it?" I breathe harder when Beca's eyes go dark and she raises an eyebrow.

"You are so sexy and I'm going to take advantage," Beca whispers and locks her hands around my neck. Standing on her tiptoes, she kisses me and I can't help but kiss her back. The hot water pours over us mixing with our heat, making it almost unbearable. It only gets hotter as Beca does indeed take advantage of me.

…

After our extremely hot shower, Beca and I head downstairs for some food and reconnaissance. Rachel and Darren are already sitting at the table, eating.

"Good morning," Rachel beams and points to the food. "Help yourself." Beca and I do before having a seat.

"Did you sleep well?" Darren asks and we both nod. "Good. I figured after breakfast, we can get to work."

"Jesse sent those photos so I'll pull it up on my laptop," Beca states and I notice that she's just pushing her food around. As everyone talks, my mind wanders. Something is wrong with Beca and she won't tell me anything. Does she know what's going on or is she just being stubborn? We know nothing about a vampire/ werewolf hybrid. What if there is seriously something wrong? Could we even do anything or would I just have to watch her suffer until it's too late?

"Chloe?" Beca's voice breaks through my thoughts and I smile at her, trying to hide my worry. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine," I lie and Beca frowns one more time before focusing back on the conversation. I'm going to figure out what's happening to Beca whether she likes it or not and I don't care what I have to do to do it.