Blood. Everything looked like a bloodbath. Bodies were scattered across the ground in every direction, missing limbs, heads ripped clean off and lying separated from their owners, some bodies hanging over the low branches of trees like broken things discarded carelessly.

A wave of nausea rose so fast and strong to Viola’s throat that her stomach turned completely over at the sight of it.

Her bare feet stepped into warm blood on the ground and she grimaced at the slick feeling beneath her soles. It was far more gruesome than anything she had imagined finding here.

Had Sebastian done all of this alone? She wondered, realizing she had been gone for no more than twenty minutes and every single one of the men was dead on the ground around her. Hadn’t Jaz said they were more than a hundred?

She’d heard supreme Alphas were the strongest werewolves in the world but she never thought it was to this extent, especially with the men carrying such unusual weapons that had proven capable of killing a werewolf with a single bullet. Surely those series of bullets she’d heard had been targeted at him? Her stomach turned in worry at the thought.

Her eyes moved frantically across the bodies trying to find him, and when she didn’t see him anywhere her heart climbed straight to her throat.

Viola moved carefully around the bodies and then heard a whimpering sound coming from her left. She swung around to find Nat on the ground with both legs ripped off, dragging himself slowly away from the scene and whimpering with every movement.

"H-help me..." He whispered in pure agony, turning his face toward her and reaching one trembling hand up in her direction as if expecting her to extend a helping hand to him.

Looking down at him, she felt no pity whatsoever but anger. How dare he attacked her man?

Viola’s eyes showed almost nothing as she raised her gun and pulled the trigger against his head, ending it instantly without so much as blinking.

He had brought every bit of this on himself and had come here with a hundred men to take her man’s life. She felt no conflict about it as she turned away and called out for Sebastian, but only her own voice echoed back through the silent trees and her anxiety climbed sharply alongside the burning pain in her back.

She didn’t understand where he could have gone when he had clearly already dealt with every man here, but the longer she couldn’t find him the worse the feeling in her chest became.

"Sebastian!" She called again, and this time her voice came out slightly shaky in a way she couldn’t fully control.

It didn’t help that everything remained unnaturally silent and every bird had taken flight from the surrounding trees, leaving nothing behind but empty branches.

Viola noticed a trail of blood on the ground that looked like something had been dragged, and she followed it without hesitation. When she reached the point where the trail stopped, she almost tripped over the large and powerful wolf lying on the ground, covered in blood.

Even in this state his size was not something anyone could overlook or mistake for anything else.

Viola felt her heart sink completely and she dropped to her knees beside him. "Sebastian!" She called, horrified at the sight of the bullet wounds and the blood matted dark and thick against his fur.

At the sound of his name he opened his eyes weakly and rolled them slowly in her direction. He made a faint sound low in his throat and then his eyes began to drift closed again.

"No, no, don’t close your eyes!" Viola dropped the guns and reached for his head, stroking his fur with trembling hands as she took in the full extent of his injuries. The wounds were not healing. Some of them were actively smoking, and she could already smell the sharp and sickening scent of burning flesh rising from them.

She parted his fur carefully and saw that the bullets were burning deeper into his flesh rather than being pushed out the way a normal wolf’s body would expel them, and she let out a horrified sound that she couldn’t hold back. "Oh moon goddess. What kind of bullets are these? Sebastian, can you hear me?" She asked, looking at his face desperately as she had no idea what to do now.

He was barely breathing, his sides rising and falling in slow and shallow movements that scared the hell out of her more than anything else she had seen today. She put her hands on his head and his eyes opened again slowly and weakly. He made a sound that was somewhere between a whimper and a groan and it cut straight through her throat like a blade.

"Can you shift back? I...I can’t carry you like this." She whispered, not even realizing she had been crying until her tears dropped onto his fur and she felt the wetness on her own cheeks. Her hands were shaking badly. She was shaking all over. Lord! How could she help him now?

"Sebastian..." She called again when he made another sound that came out thick with pain.

"Go..." She heard his voice crack out. Viola stilled for a moment, stunned that she could understand him in his wolf form, but she pushed past the shock immediately as the situation was just too serious for her to dwell on the fact that she could suddenly understand him. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Where?" She asked, looking around the trees helplessly. "Wh-where can I go to get help?"

"Go...to Kasa...Matt and my men will take you back to Silver...I can’t move. The fucking bullets are killing my nerves..." He struggled to form the words, each one costing him visibly, his eyes already sliding closed again.

His entire body felt paralyzed and heavy, like every system was shutting down one by one, and the pull toward unconsciousness was becoming impossible to fight. But before he would allow it to take him he needed to know she would be safely away from here. He couldn’t let the damn bullets take his life without making sure of her safety.

Sebastian had known with how many times he had been targeted for assassination that one day his enemies would succeed, just like they had with his parents. He had narrowly escaped death at every step of his life but he knew he was getting closer to it every day as the world progressed and new weapons were being made.

However, never in a million years did he think today would be the day he would look upon this world for the last time. His eyes were fixed on her face, but even his vision was going, he could barely make out her features. And he suddenly wished he could touch her face, even just one last time.

"...don’t stay in Silver forever...take care of my sister and leave for the human world...you will be safer there. Take as much money as you want with you..." Came his weak instructions to her as his eyes were beginning to shut against his will again. Those damned bullets...