Oh my God, finally! I can't even describe how hard this chapter was. Since I started writing it, I've probably had five or six versions of it, this one has been my favorite.

I don't even know if anyone's still sticking around for this story, but if you are THANK YOU SO MUCH!

When Charlie woke up, she was surrounded by white. It blinded her when she first opened her eyes.

A large blue figure filled her vision immediately.

"Oh Charlotte, we've all been so worried." Hank expressed.

"The cubs?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"The shot, there was too much trauma."

She nodded, holding her tears back.

"You've been unconscious for nearly a week. Whatever compound they were injecting you with did a number on your healing factor."

"Where's Victor?"

For the first time in her life, she saw Hank look truly uncomfortable.

"Hank, where is he?"

"Charlotte, no one's seen him. He killed the security guard immediately who shot you, helped get you here, and then disappeared."

"What about his phone?"

"Goes straight to voicemail."

Charlotte was angry and confused. Victor had abandoned her when she needed him most. She struggled to push herself up from the bed.

"I'm going to find him."

Hank gently pushed her shoulder back down.

"Charlotte, you're not going anywhere. You need to rest."

"Hank, I've rested for a week. I'm going to find my mate."

Charlie shrugged his hand from her shoulder and rose slowly from the bed.

There was a pile of folded clothes at the end of the bed. She slipped on the sweats and thin tshirt while Hank looked the other way awkwardly.

"Charlotte, how do you even plan to find him?"

"I'll figure it out."

As Charlie went to leave the room, Hank grabbed her arm.

"Hank, let go. I'm leaving, and I'm going to find Victor, and I'm going to make him pay for abandoning me."

Two weeks later

"I'm only going to ask once more, where did you last see him?"

Charlie held her claws to the man's neck, digging them in threateningly.

"I told you! He was here day before yesterday!"

Charlie dug her claws a bit deeper, just barely drawing blood.

"And where did he go?" She seethed.

"He just left! Walked out after last call!"

She sighed and pushed him into the wall roughly. She left without a word.

Charlie was exhausted. The past two weeks had been nothing but driving and interrogating strangers. Every lead led her closer to Victor, she hoped anyways.

She hadn't eaten anything that she hadn't hunted down herself. She'd barely slept.

As she entered the woods outside the bar, she could smell traces of Victor. While his scent usually calmed her, now it made her angry. Victor had left her when she needed him most and no one had heard from him since.

She followed what bit of his scent she could track. As the scent became stronger, she moved quicker.

Then it was overbearing. It was all around her. Before she could search for him further, she felt his presence. She spun around slowly to see him, standing not ten feet from her.

His face and hands were stained with blood. He looked like a nightmare.

"Kitten-"

She didn't let him finish. She launched herself at him, claws out and teeth bared.

Her claws dug into his chest, tearing at his flesh.

He flung her off of him into a tree. She lowered herself into a crouch, preparing to pounce again.

"Kitten, you need to-"

Again, she attacked; this time dragged her claws across his face, leaving behind deep gashes.

With strength she didn't know she possessed, she threw him to the ground. Before he could recover fully, she jumped on top of him, straddling his chest.

He tried to grab her wrists, but she was too angry, too hurt to stop her onslaught. Finally, she managed to grab his head, wrenching it to the side, feeling the satisfying snap of his neck.

As he went limp beneath her, the reality of what she'd done overcame her. She scrambled off his body until she felt a tree behind her. She rested her head against her knees, sobbing. Her body shook as she cried, not just for Victor, but for her children, the children she would never know.

A few minutes passed before strong arms wrapped around her. In her breakdown, she hadn't heard Victor heal, or approach her.

She stood up, throwing his arms from her, rising to her feet.

"No! You don't get to do that! You don't get to abandon me and then try to comfort me! You left me! You left us!"

Victor hadn't moved from his spot, he merely rested his head against the trunk, looking into the distance.

"The cubs?" He asked, resigned, as if her already knew the answer.

"Gone. You would know that if you'd been there." She seethed.

He finally met her gaze, seeing the hurt in her eyes.

"I couldn't."

"You couldn't what? Couldn't be there for your mate? Your children? You fucking left us, left me, bleeding in a hospital bed! You didn't even know if I would live! You just took off!"

"Kitten, listen-"

"Don't fucking call me that! You have no right! As far as I'm concerned, you are dead to me! I'm no longer your mate!"

"You don't get to decide that."

"Watch me. If I see you again, I'll kill you again, and this time, you won't come back."

Charlie turned to leave, but was stopped by Victor's large hand on her wrist.

"I thought you were gone. There was so much blood, and you weren't healing."

Charlie had no answer for that.

"You looked dead, Charlie. You were so pale, and cold, your heartbeat was so weak, and the cubs-" Victor stopped.

It was then that Charlie realized, that Victor was hurting too. He'd thought that he'd lost everything he cared about in the world. She'd been so angry, hell bent on finding him that it never occurred to her that he'd been coping the only way he knew how: drinking and killing.

"Graydon?" She asked.

"No one will ever find his body, what's left of it anyways."

"Good."

They stood there, neither truly knowing how to proceed.

"So what now?" He asked lowly, almost afraid to hear her answer.

Charlie took a deep breath. Though she was angry and hurt, she understood his actions. She knew that no matter how angry she was, she still loved Victor.

"We go home. We heal. We move on." She slipped her hand into his before continuing.

"But if we do this, we stick together. No matter what."

He nodded.

"Then let's go home."

I don't know if this is what you expected or if you're even happy with it. Honestly, I've been working on this chapter for an embarrassingly long amount of time, I'm physically incapable of putting anymore energy into it. Rate and review, my lovelies!