Axel POV

Red hot flames begin caressing any and every object in its way. Its agenda was obvious it wanted to reduce everything to ashes. The flames were thick and violent, if Manny and I don't get out of these restraints would surely eat us alive. Where was Ryker? He was suppose to send bodies to our location, this is why I always do things myself.

"Can you reach the knife?" Manny yelled over the crackling of the fire.

"I think so but we're going to have to do a one eighty so I can use my legs to grab it." i yelled back.

     A loud cough poured out of my body as I fought off the smoke that had invaded my lungs. I'm trying to breath but my lungs refuse to cooperate. Mixed with the crackling of fire, continuous groans slip out of Manny mouth as we reposition ourselves so I could attempt to reach for the disposed knife. After a couple attempts at reaching for the knife I was finally able to grab a hold of the knife. A barking cough erupted from my throat and at the end the cough kind of seemed like a whistling sound were you can't get any air in.

       Waves of heat licked my exposed skin, every breath seems as if it's my last. Blurry images sweep pass my eyes like cars on a highway. A raging headache starts to form as I manage to get the knife into my hands. Every breath I take begins to feel like my last, my grip on the knife starts to slip as I fight off the darkness that wishes to plague my body.

•••

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

     It's too early for me to be dealing with Manny right now. I swear if he's standing over me with a stupid smirk plastered on his face I'm going to kill him. Manny and I seriously need to have a talk about boundaries, who in their right mind tries to wake people up with annoying beeping sounds that sound like hospital machines?

     A small sting of pain treks through my arm causing me to open my eyes and immediately gaze at the spot. From the tip of my elbow to the base of my fingers, a white bandage enclosed the increasingly painful spots. A hiss sucks into my mouth as a white hot pain shoots through my arm. It feels as if someone is branding my arm with a branding iron.

     I'm tempted to scratch the horrid pain away but in the back of my mind I know that will only make matters worst. That bastard Sebastian truly left us in that building so we could become human barbecue. Wait a minute, How did I get out of Sam Boxing club? Instantly my eyes darted around the room in which I was staying in.

      The room is devoid of any color besides white. There is no decoration on the walls or the two end tables on each side of the bed. An IV was plugged into my left arm and the annoying beeping machine was in fact a hospital machine. I was a hundred percent positive I wasn't in a hospital because if Dark Howlers found me they wouldn't take me to a hospital. If an enemy found me I would either be in a ditch somewhere or I would be taped to a chair.

"You're finally awake," A feminine voice replied. Upon forcing myself to sit up I recognized the voice as Kenna. "What were you thinking? Were you trying to kill yourself?"

"I wasn't trying to kill myself," I retorted.

"What were you doing? Manny is still sedated so no one knows what was going on inside the club." She replied as she pulled up a chair.

"I was handling business," I shrugged. A searing hot pain came back with a vengeance  tempting me to scratch my wound. "Why is my arm in a cast?"

"You have second degree burns," She replied with a distant look. "Ryker said he seen a group of Morrows heading in the opposite direction of the club."

"Yeah Sebastian found out we had his sis—" I cut myself off when I noticed the pained look on her face. "Ma, Are you ok?"

"Mujhe Jana Hai, jaldi theek ho jaen." She replied in her Native tongue before kissing me on the forehead and leaving. (I have to go, get well soon)

     I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion. The look on her face before she left led me to believe she just discovered something. Maybe, she put straggling pieces of a puzzle together? A frown lit my face as I pulled the IV out of my arm. I'll have Maverick checked up on her, that was strange even for Kenna. Right now I need to set up a meet with Morrow.

•••

Reign POV

"Reign?" I heard a voice whisper as a cold towel was placed amongst my forehead.

     It took every ounce of my strength to open my heavy eye lids. My eyes slowly rolled to the left of me so I could gaze at Bash. He removed the towel from my forehead then placed it in the cold water. When the rung out towel was placed back on my forehead a relieve sigh slipped out of my mouth. Instead of returning to our main home Bash stopped at our business townhouse.

     Something about a meeting with Gunnar, I've been slipping in and out of focus so I haven't been able to get all the information.

"I'm going to get you help," Bash responded with a look of sadness in his teal eyes. Why was he sad? "Just a little bit longer."

"I hurt her." I mumbled.

"You hurt who?" He questioned.

"Hope."

      A dark looked crossed his features, as he wiped the sweat from off my sickly face.

"Bash did you help her?" I questioned him after a prolonged silence. "I shot her, I don't want her to die."

"Ray you only shot her in the shoulder," He replied with an amused look. "She'll live."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Yes, Preston took the bullet out."

A continuous wave of coughs erupted from my chest only adding to the feeling of exhaustion. After a moment of fighting my heavy eye lids, I slipped into a much anticipated sleep. I was awoken by a hand being placed over my mouth. Immediately my eyes shot open, I grasped a hold of the hand that was placed over my mouth. Green eyes peered into my brown ones, instantly a muffled scream tries to rip pass his firm grip on my mouth.

"Reign calm down." Gunnar whispered. Calm down? How in the world did he even get in here? Why is he here? Incoherently I tried to reply with calm down? How am I suppose to calm down after what you did?

"If I take my hand off your mouth," He whispered. His alluring eyes were trying to hold me in a trace as he whispered his next words. "Will you keep quiet?"

My eyes were widen with fear, What if I agreed to remain silent? Would he indirectly hurt me again? Did I want to take that chance?

"I'm not going to hurt you," He whispered again before looking towards the closed door. "I promise, just hear me out?"

Reluctantly I nodded my head, causing him to slowly remove his hand from my mouth. He removed the hot towel from my forehead and dipped it into the water besides my bed before placing it back on my forehead. I was genuinely surprised at the gentleness in his voice. A small smile placed itself onto his face as he gazed at me with his soft eyes.

     Was I hallucinating? Was Gunnar showing me—a suppose enemy—a genuine smile? I went to sit up but my abdomen failed me causing me to lay back in my original horizontal position. A look of pain spread across his face as he hung his head low and mumbled something incoherent.

"What?" I questioned.

    Slowly he lifted his head, his beautiful green eyes were unrelenting as they stared at me with an immense amount of determination. He brought one of his hands to my cheek, with a slight amount of hesitation his fair palm enveloped the left side of my cheek. My heart stuttered at the small contact, this isn't right. I shouldn't feel ecstatic by his mere touch.

"I'm sorry." His gently whispered.

     He's sorry? How is him being sorry going to fix my broken ribs? What about this ridiculous fever that refuses to let up? Does he believe, that since he's sorry I should forgive him? Jensen said he was sorry...

"I bet your next line is going to be, it'll never happen again." I replied with an eye roll at the end.

"Reign." He sighed as his eyes cast downwards.

"Gunnar." I said his name with venom dropping from every single letter.

     If I wasn't watching for a reaction I would've missed his small flinch.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean—I-I'm sorry." He retorted as he finally looked up so his entrancing green eyes could hold me captive.

I was taken back, Gunnar was continuously apologizing to me. Gunnar the Vice President of the Dark Howlers my family known enemy was apologizing to me.  He probably has never uttered the word sorry in his life, yet he felt the need to apologize not once but twice. My heart was beating wildly in my chest as I fought to gain control of my emotions.

     He was tempting me with Axel personality because believe it or not Axel and Gunnar might share the same being but they're complete opposites. Axel is kind and understanding, Gunnar is vicious and narrow minded.

"I shouldn't have made Hope extract information out of you," His eyes were boring into mine with an innocent plead. "I don't know if you'll ever forgive me but I'm truly sorry."

        He brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. A light gasp released itself from my lips as the warm trail his thumb left behind grazed my face.

"I just want you to know, I believe you." Axel softly spoke. "Please forgive me for causing you pain, it won't happen again no one will ever mistreat you."

"Ax-Gunnar you should go before-"

"Reign, I got you your favorite Asopao de Pollo." Preston spoke as soon as he entered the room.

Immediately Axel—Gunnar—removed all contact from my being. He stood up quickly and blanked the soft look off his face.

"Reign, you're ok?" Preston questioned as he sat the soup down and began reaching for his gun.

"Y-yeah I'm fine." I answered as I bit my tongue in an attempt to dim the pain from my stomach as I sat up in a vertical position.

"What are you doing in here?" Preston directed his question towards Gunnar. "Move away from her."

Gunnar just raised his hands up in a I don't want any problems position. He walked towards Preston who was analyzing him with a critical eye and a fully loaded gun.

"I was just about to give her the antidote like I promised I would."

"Did you bring two?" Preston retorted as soon as Gunnar was a safe distance away from me. "Sebastian wants to test the antidote on Hope."

"Hope? What does she have to with anything?"

"You didn't think we took her for no reason," A sarcastic chuckle left Preston mouth. "We injected her with some of Reign blood, they both have the same symptoms."

From this point of view I could see the small squint in his eyes, his tongue traveled inside of his mouth and pressed up against his cheek. As he made a hm sound.

"I did bring two but you'll only get them if you show me Hope."

"Get in front of me," Preston replied as he took the safety off the gun and moved a couple steps away from the door.

       I release a small sigh as I relaxed my muscles, the pain and excruciating heat were battling each other for full control of my misery. I watched the pair of them ease out of the room. Just leave me here, with my soup at a considerable amount of distance away. A sigh slipped out of my mouth guess I'll have to starve until someone comes back in. I grabbed the hair tie off my wrist and tied my locks in a bun. Immediately cold air bristled my neck, hopefully they come back with that antidote soon.

    Closing my eyes I drifted back to the conversation I had no more than five minutes ago. My mind was a mess, the emotions ripping through me were consuming.

Confusion.

Distrust.

Anger.

How can I have such poor taste in men? Is it because I grew up surrounded by men some good and some bad? Dad and Bash tried to shield me from a lot of the bad things and for the most part they succeeded. Yet I still managed to come out dimly effected by my surroundings. I've witness cut off fingers, public humility and ridicule of new members. Maybe I'm use to being in love with the thought of finding a good man? Maybe that's why I ignore the warning signs?

A high level of frustration consumes me as an internal battle arises in me. Before I could even process what was happening an emotional wave of tears pour out my Hershey colored eyes. The wall I was trying so hard to build up, was coming down in heaps of heavy bricks. Salty liquid pour out of my eyes, it doesn't matter how hard I try to hold them back. The waves of tears leaves pathways down my face.

     The worst part about losing my battle to salty traitors is I know why they're falling. I know they're falling because I'm angry. Angry at the fact that every time I try to let someone in it always comes back to bite me in the butt. Angry at the never ending cycle of destruction around me. I'm angry at the different paths offered in exchanging for me to live on this earth.

I'm angry at the path of violence down each outstretched road. Most importantly, I'm angry at myself because I still care and I want to forgive Axel even though I know I shouldn't.

How could I despise Jensen so quickly, yet as soon as Axel shows his violent side I become uncertain? I don't even know who I am anymore, can I forgive someone without being able to forgive myself? Emptiness settles over me, the tears keep falling down my face similar to rain pouring from the sky during a rainstorm.

      I arrive at the conclusion that I am alone, no one around me can ever understand this feeling of isolation and loneliness.