I couldn't move.

I was frozen and was hoping Bayo would forget what he saw but there was no way of that happening.

I couldn't move.

The pain in my thigh was immense, and even the slightest movement caused discomfort.

I couldn't move.

Bayo had come closer from behind me, his breath felt hot on my cool skin. I felt his canines drag along my neck, as lazily as his fingers were doing a minute ago.

"Why'd you have to lie?" he said.

I had no words. I couldn't tell him anything. All I could do was stay quiet. I never lied about anything.

"You're a spy aren't you? Your mate sent you to our band as his informant," he asked.

I didn't say anything.

I could feel the cold air rush to my skin as he lifted the blanket to let his hand inside. He touched the stab wound with a finger.

The slight touch hurt the sensitive area as he placed his finger there firmly.

My tears betrayed me as they rapidly fell. Still, I was unable to make a sound.

"Who is it? Who sent you here? Where did you come from?" he asked, the pressure on my wound increasing slightly with every question.

"I... I," a sob escaped my throat. I didn't have any answers for him.

"It's Sven isn't it?" he asked, his voice was a whisper now. I could feel the warmth of blood escaping my wound from underneath the medical dressing.

Never before had I felt so helpless, even the wound alone wasn't enough to stop me from fighting back. I'd been in worse situations than this.

But the sheer panic that ran through me had me unmoving, as if a boulder was pressed on top of me. Ima's words of encouragement soon turned to cries of help as she realized I was having one of my worst panic attacks.

"That fucking rat," he said.

"It's not... not him," I managed to say, my voice now hoarse from the tears. My thigh felt like it was being stabbed over and over, with every throb underneath his forceful finger.

"Then who?" he asked me.

"I... I don't know," I said, honestly, not knowing what else to say.

Bayo was quiet from behind me. I couldn't see his face, I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Then I heard a laugh, a quiet, sinister laugh.

"Let's see if this will jog your memory," he said running his teeth along my mark, not hard enough to pierce through, but enough to make me tremble.

Just then, we heard voices right outside our door, and all I wanted to do was scream, but I couldn't.

Bayo had stopped moving as well, and thankfully removed his finger from my wound. But my panic did not subside as he still was close, probably waiting for whoever stood outside to leave.

But they didn't leave. The voices were loud and we could make out what they were saying.

"We weren't expecting you till tomorrow afternoon Alpha. Your room is already prepared though," I heard a voice say.

"Thank you Lachlan. I have some urgent matters to attend to and had to prepone my visit. Can we begin the meeting now?" another voice replied.

I felt Bayo move away and sit up, probably to hear better, although our werewolf hearing allowed us to hear just enough.

"I'm afraid it's late and our guests have retired to their rooms already."

"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't urgent."

There was a pause.

"I'll speak to my Alpha and see if it can be arranged."

As the owners of those voices moved a little further away, I realized I had to put distance between Bayo and myself.

I pushed my good leg forward and tried to place it on the ground hoping my stitches wouldn't tear any further.

I had to stand up quickly so that I didn't sit on my wound, and I did exactly that.

Once I was sure my left foot was placed firmly on the ground, I pushed myself off the bed and stood with my weight on my left.

Unfortunately, the movement was too quick for my dizzy brain, and I lost balance and fell to the floor on my back.

It took everything in my power to not scream. Instead I managed a strangled cry and held my thigh in an attempt to stop the pain.

"Are you crazy!" Bayo's frustrated voice came from beside me.

"Don't touch me," I told him sternly as he tried to lift me from the ground.

There was a quick knock on the door.

Bayo went to the door and opened it, just enough so whoever was on the other side wouldn't see the crumpled mess on the floor that was me.

"Bayo, we'll need you and Rayne at the meeting hall now. Some of our guests are in a hurry so we had to shift the meeting back," I heard Fraser's voice.

"Yeah okay, we'll be there," he replied, without argument.

Bayo gave me a look that said, "I'll-deal-with-you-later" and went to the attached washroom to probably get ready for the impromptu meeting.

I held on to the side table to push myself to stand. I could feel the blood trickling down my leg but there was nothing I could do about it right now.

I used a tissue to wipe the blood away, but only ended up smearing the blood on my skin.

I was in tears and in pain and I knew that I was the definition of a train wreck right now.

As I pulled up my sweatpants with a lot of effort, Bayo came out of the washroom looking like nothing happened.

I limped to the washroom, carrying my bag with me and shut the door, letting myself cry quietly for about a minute before forcing myself to stop.

Ima was crying with me. The physical and mental exhaustion of training, falling off of a tree, getting stabbed and punched, and then assaulted by Bayo was too much for us. Every event seemed like it was worse than the last, and I couldn't imagine what was going to happen now.

As I walked to the mirror and looked at my reflection, I felt my panic attack come back. I was starting to hyperventilate, my quick breaths turning to sobs again.

Half my face was swollen and red, my hair was disheveled, and my eyes, bloodshot.

I managed to stand as straight as I could on one foot, and decided to fix whatever I could.

"I think we'd be safer here than with Bayo," Ima said.

"Not now Ima," I told her.

I combed my hair with difficulty, trying my best to not accidentally touch my face, and set it in a professional looking low bun.

I changed into a plain white shirt and a black, flowy long skirt that I knew would provide the least friction on my thigh as I walked. It was also the easiest to wear.

I did my best to look decent for the meeting, but my face did not cooperate.

I came out of the washroom just in time to hear another knock on the door.

"I'm to take you to the meeting hall. Whenever you're ready," I heard Diem's voice.

Bayo didn't even look at me as he left the room, and I walked painfully slowly to the door.

Diem offered me his arm which I gratefully took, leaning some of my weight on him as I walked.

Thankfully we didn't have to go too far, as the meeting hall was on the ground floor of the pack house as well.

Bayo seemed to know the way, as he was already ahead of us.

Diem opened the door for me to step inside but I was paralyzed in my spot.

His scent hit me hard, and I looked up to see him. His familiar eyes shone with unshed tears as he looked right back at me.

The world seemed to stop. My heart seemed to stop.

I felt safe again. Ima was howling in the back of my mind to have finally found her mate.

I tried my best to quell my tears that had started to resurface, but maintaining composure seemed impossible at his sight.

He was beautiful. He was mine. He was here.

"Valente"

- End of Part 1 -