Watch The Dark

Tana's first instinct was to grab Sincere and hold her close so that she could protect her. All over, wolves were shredding their fancy clothes and attacking the menacing wolves that stalked around the ball room. They were hunting something, and Tana had a feeling she knew exactly what that was.

"Tuk, stay with Sincere! Take her outside!" Tana yelled over the commotion. Tuk nodded and quickly whisked Sincere away, just in time for Tana to be met with red eyes and sharp teeth. He was in his human form, but he was far from human. He had something glinting in his hand that made Tana back away.

"Are you getting shy? That's not what Alpha said about you. Why don't you come with us?" He drawled, getting even angrier the further Tana got from him.

"Stop moving, bitch!" He yelled. Suddenly, he whipped the glinting object right at Tana. She moved enough for it to miss her throat, but instead it lodged in her shoulder and drew a howl of pain from her. Silver.

She couldn't shift now, so she would have to fight in her human form. Just when he began to look over her, a wolf that she assumed was Blake's judging by the scar tackled him to the ground, sinking his teeth into the man's throat.

Blood poured from her shoulder but she couldn't touch the blade. Even the handle was silver and it burned to the touch.

With a growl, she stumbled back up. Many wolves were already dead on the floor. She could see their wide, lifeless eyes. All of them were bright red.

"Tana, come, you're hurt!" Alec yelled, racing towards her with his hand outstretched. His clothes had been torn and he had a few cuts, but they were already healing.

"I'm fine! I need to help!" She hissed, pulling against him with a wail of pain as the effects of the silver started running down her arm and slightly near her neck.

"Stop being so stubborn. Let's go," he growled. With the silver in her shoulder she couldn't use her full wolf strength, leaving her to be pulled out by her brother while chaos reigned inside of the ball room.

Where is Declan? Where is our mate?

Tana let out a breath when she felt the crisp night air hit her face. Tuk, Allura, the twins, and Sincere were outside already. Erica and Asher were as well, accompanied by a few other women with pups that Tana didn't know.

"Oh, Aurora! Tana, we need to get that out," Allura fussed, racing over to her with her hands hovering around the wound.

"The handle is silver. I burned my hand already- I can't touch it," Tana stammered, her body shaking far more than she would have liked.

"It's been in too long. She'll die if we don't take it out," Allura said. Suddenly, she ripped off a piece of her dress and wrapped it around the handle, yanking it out as quickly as possible before dropping it like it was burning her. Which it probably was. However, Tana hadn't expected Allura to be so...intense. She had always struck her as a common housewife.

She let out a cry as the blade was ripped out, allowing blood to pour freely from the wound.

"It must have been coated with something. Either wolfsbane or liquified silver," Allura growled, easing Tana down so that she could apply pressure to the wound to stop it from bleeding.

"Alec, you go and help them. Help my son. I'll take care of her," Allura insisted. Alec nodded hesitantly and shifted in an instant, charging back into the room with a loud, vengeful snarl.

"I've never gotten hit with silver before. It hurts really really bad," Tana said breathlessly. She was shaking terribly no matter how hard she tried to stop.

"I know, dear. Goddess damn this. I don't have anything here with me. Julian! Get the drivers! We need to get back to the pack house now!" Allura yelled. Julian nodded and raced off. Sincere was whimpering at Tuk's side, her wide, worried eyes fixed on Tana.

"You know, if I die like this-"

"Don't talk poppycock like that, Tana."

"Listen. If I die like this you need to tell Declan that he has to move on, okay? He has to find a pretty girl and get married and have pups. Don't let him waste his tears on me, okay? I'm not worth it," Tana sputtered, her heart beating a mile a minute. She felt tired, and hurt, and extremely nauseous.

That was the last thing she remembered, actually. Rolling weakly on her side to vomit.

And then everything went black.

***

"Alpha, I'm sorry I can't tell you more. The liquid silver got into her bloodstream. While we got most of it out, some still remains. Thankfully, since it's a small amount, it should pass within a week. But she is still very weak and her wound is exposed. That will take a bit longer to heal," a medic, the nice one Tana had seen before, was talking. She get too sluggish to actually open her eyes so she just listened. She could hear Declan let out a breath and start pacing.

“There was something else on the blade as well. Our forensics team have been looking into it but they can’t figure out what it is. It isn’t a large amount so we don’t think it’s anything harmful. It’s good that Grand Luna Allura got that blade out when she did,” the medic told him. Declan let out a huff.

“How do you not know what it is? If you don’t know, that means it could be harmful,” he growled.

“Alpha, we are doing the best we can-“

“Bullshit!” He snarled. That alone got Tana to muster up the energy to open her eyes and squint as the sudden brightness pooled into her vision.

“Declan?” She rasped. Her throat felt drier than she anticipated. How long had she been asleep for?

“Get her some water,” Declan ordered, moving over to where Tana’s head was.

“How are you feeling? Goddess, Tana. Stop moving,” he grunted as she started to try and sit up.

“I don’t like being bed ridden. And I’ll do what I want,” she retorted, gratefully accepting the cup of water the medic brought her with the arm that didn’t feel like it was on fire.

“Try not to over exert yourself this week. The silver was extremely pungent so it’ll take your wolf longer to heal. Right now, you only have your human side healing because your wolf can’t handle the silver,” the medic said. Tana was busy drinking her water, which tasted better than anything she had drank in her entire life. Well, it did at that moment.

“I’ve left some painkillers on the table. I’ll leave you two alone,” the medic finally said, smiling at Tana before leaving the room.

“What happened? At the ball. Talon attacked?” She asked. Declan gave her a curt nod, running a hand through his disheveled hair.

“Most of them were Blood Wolves. We think they had been injected with the serum Talon had been making. All of their eyes were red. The one who attacked you was sent to either retrieve you or kill you, we don’t know. But judging by the lengths Talon has gone I doubt he wanted you dead,” Declan said.

“He wanted to sent a message, Tana. He just declared war on the Dark Wolves.”