"Ethan no!" I tackled him to the ground as he growled out loudly. My heart was still breaking and the non-existent wind was still blowing through the limbs of the tree. I felt like it was time for us to go though. I knew it was. I had that feeling that I had before, it showed us all it was going to that night. "Ethan please, listen to me–" "I'm going to kill him," he growled out as he tried to wrestle me off of him. "I know, I know you are but we can't right now, you know that!" Ethan growled fiercely as I tried to pin him down, but his fury was hard to get a handle on. I understood. I understood well. I wanted Thomas' throat, as did my beast. She was ready to run with her mate to find the traitor and have his flesh in her mouth. Ethan wrestled me off of him and started to sprint to the forest as our bond howled out in pain, but I tackled him down again as tears streamed down my face. "Baby, we can't please–" "Charlotte," he flipped over so I was under him. His eyes were blazing with a similar bloodlust that Levi's had in that vision. I shivered as I reached for his face, reached for him, for my mate. "You cannot tell me that after what we just saw that we are going to let him breathe the air on this land for another day!?" "Baby please, please listen to me. You said yourself we need proof, we need something solid for the pack. Telling people we saw him do it because a tree showed us is not something solid–" I wanted to finish my thought but my voice broke as a wave of pain washed over the bond. "Charlotte," he said on the cusp of a sharp breath. "He killed them, he killed my family–" he bit back a sob and looked at me through eyes that were about to crack open with tears. I pushed back my own and nodded. "I know, I know. Please, come home. Let's go home and we can sort through it, ok? Please Ethan, please just come home?" He let out a long breath. I cocked my head and knew that I was winning this battle. I blinked hard and thanked the damn moon. I squirmed out from under him then pulled at his arm a little. "Baby come on, please come home," I whispered to him again while the tree seemed to sway some more, like it was waving us away. "Ok," he breathed out shakily. I let out a sigh of relief and nodded again. Ethan got up slowly and looked back at the tree one last time; the blood was still swirling around, but it seemed to be settling. I had a feeling the next time I would see that tree it would be under much different circumstances. It wasn't that I wasn't with Ethan, but I knew that if Ethan run down there now that it would not be good for us or the pack. Spewing that Thomas was the one that ripped this pack apart ten years ago because of a tree that whispered to us is enough in the human world to get you locked up somewhere with some nice padded walls. While I knew it was different here, we needed solid proof. We needed to protect the pack and give them actual evidence so we could have a satisfying just ending for all parties. Right now it could send people into a frenzy, and we needed to protect them even if it hurt us. We ran back to the house in silence. The silence between us spoke volumes. Neither of us had to say to the other how we were feeling, because we felt it. We felt our hearts breaking over the bond, it was like someone was stabbing us with hot knives in old wounds. Harsh. I had told Evan to go home and come in the morning, much to his displeasure, but I was so damn glad. Glad because once Ethan and I walked through that door I could see how close he was to cracking again. I had a feeling that tonight he just needed to crack. The man just watched his family die; it was a sight that was cracking both of us. Anger left and the agony set it. I could see it on his face; memories of a pain that was all too familiar, that he watched the birth of. I pulled him upstairs and into our bathroom. My wolf was frantic. She could feel her male, her male that was in so much pain along with ourselves. She wanted to lick his wounds, but these were wounds that we couldn't necessarily lick. I sat him on the edge of the tub then turned the bath on and dumped some nice smelling salts in it by the handfuls. We were still covered in mud, and smelled like damn ash, but the smell was the least of my concerns right now. The shower water was cold at first, but soon it turned warm. I walked over to Ethan who was staring somberly at the tile in front of him and pulled him towards me. "Come on, let's get this mud off." He nodded and followed me into the steamy shower that seemed to start to melt the mud away right as we stepped in. I tried my best to wash it off me and him while we were in there, or at least the majority of it. Getting it out of my hair was another issue, as well as Ethan's. I made him kneel down so I could scrub and scrub and scrub at it; scrub away the pain and sadness that took the form of dark clumpy wet dirt. It wasn't enough. I was starting to crack too, I could feel it. Images of the family I never had flashed in my mind as the warm water sprayed down my back and it was everything I had to not break down right there. Between that and the sound of Ethan's howls at the end of it, those haunting howls, I didn't know if I would even be able to sleep. I wouldn't be able to sleep, for a while. I looked over and the bath was almost full; almost tripping as I left the shower, I quickly turned it off then tested the water. "Come on Ethan," I called gently. Now was not the time to be firm or forceful, sometimes there was great strength in being gentle. Ethan walked quietly out of the shower, turning it off as he went, and not bothering to shake the wetness out of his hair. I held my hand out to him, his that took it like I was his only lifeline in this world. I bit my lip and nodded to him as he stepped in first and settled down before I stepped in behind him; I slid my legs under his arms and pulled him back by his torso to me so he could lean on my chest. He was quiet. We were quiet. Both of us like somber zombies soaking in a tub filled with the remnants of the mud, our tears, and grief. It was like Pandora's box was opened and poured out into our tub. My fingers were mindlessly combing his hair while my beast paced. She paced and reached out to her male, her male that was howling lowly a familiar tune over our bond. "Ethan?" I whispered out to him. It was then that the cracking began. The tears. I heard a choked sob, followed by another, then another, then another, then another until we were holding onto each other as cries, sobs, and tears racked through our bodies. I rested my head on his shoulder while he leaned against my chest, clutching my legs like they were a seatbelt holding him in the car before a crash.