"No! Never!"

A low growl had her turning to face the monster that was her mate. His fangs were soaked in blood and extended four to five inches past his chin to his chest. She stared at their impressive lengths. Vampires grew approximately half of an inch of fang for every thousand years of life. Though most older vampires only extended their fangs part way to feed or show aggression. It was only during instances where a vampire felt threatened did they extend fully. There was no hiding his age now; it was on display for all to see.

"If you think you're biting me later with those things you have another thing coming." She put her hands on her hips and faced him down. She hoped levity and humor would break through the killing haze in his mind.

He paused and tilted his head at her. She was getting through to him.

"Sexy fun time will only happen if you retract those suckers, mister," she said her voice trembling.

"Beth. My mate." His voice sounded harsh and deeper than she had ever heard it before.

"That's right my love, it's Beth, your Bunny." She swallowed hard against the knot in her throat; she couldn't lose him now, not when she had finally felt what it was like to be complete.

Gavriel's mouth twitched and his fangs began to recede. He took deep breaths and within seconds they were retracted completely. When he looked up his eyes were back to their normal grey color and focused.

"My Beth, my Bunny," he whispered and opened his arms.

Crying out she collapsed against him, sobbing.

"Shh my love, I'm okay, it's over. Thank the Gods, it's finally over." His lips were dry and cracked as they pressed against her forehead.

"They almost shot you," she cried. Then she remembered, they had almost killed her mate. She whirled around and flew at Aiden, punching wherever she could reach.

"How could you! How could you try to kill him!" She could barely see through her rage.

"Aiden, seriously what the fuck!" Meryn kicked Aiden in the shin.

"Ow! Ow! Dammit! Someone get her! Colton you deranged shit get them off of me!" Aiden did his best to block her blows.

An arm came up behind her, pulling her away from the Unit Commander.

"I hate you! I hate you!" she cried.

"Beth! Beth! Baby, they had tranquilizers!" Gavriel croaked trying to get her to hear him. She stopped fighting.

She turned. "Really?" she sniffled.

"Yes, baby. Though, now that I think about it, even if they had shot me, I think I would have been okay."

"Sorry, baby!" Meryn apologized looking up at her mate contritely.

Aiden frowned at everyone. Colton began to laugh. Aiden flipped him off and Colton wheezed harder.

"You went against an army of ferals and didn't get a scratch on you. You come home and piss off the women and they almost take you out!" Colton had to put a steadying hand on Sascha's shoulder. The Gamma Unit leader was laughing so hard had to lean against Colton to stay upright. The pair of them howled and slapped their legs. It wasn't long before all of the men were laughing expelling a lot of built up stress and tension. In the background Oron reported that all of the units had returned with no casualties, that the ferals ran away around the same time Gavriel had arrived at the Alpha estate.

"You know son, you shouldn't be upsetting Meryn like this," Byron chastised.

Aiden stared open mouthed at his father before turning to bark at Meryn. "Don't touch that!" he pulled her away from the body of a feral.

"But it's still twitching," Meryn said.

Elizabeth turned to Byron. "Thank you for coming so quickly, I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't come when you had."

Two grizzled warriors clapped Byron on the back. "Good thing we were visiting for drinks, hey, Byron," one laughed.

The other cracked his knuckles, grinning evilly. "I haven't had this much fun since I retired," he admitted.

Aiden stepped forward and shook hands with both men. "John, Abraham, I'd like for you to meet my mate, Meryn. Meryn, this is John Younger and Abraham Carter, the retired leaders of the Gamma and Epsilon Units. Let me add my thanks to Elizabeth's. Thank you for coming as quickly as you did."

"Looks like things have changed quite a bit since we retired. I don't remember ferals running together like this." John turned one of the ferals over with the toe of his boot.

Elizabeth stared down and gasped. At least twelve different sets of guns were trained on the dead feral.

"What is it, Beth?" Gavriel asked turning her away from the corpse.

"I know that man," she whispered.

Aiden knelt down and stared at the dead man's face. "I don't recognize him. Do you know him from Noctem Falls?"

Meryn pushed past Aiden to look down. She inhaled and covered her mouth with both hands. "Oh, no!" Her eyes filled with tears. She turned and buried her face in Byron's chest. Aiden stood and went to her concerned.

Rubbing Meryn's back, Aiden looked back to Elizabeth. "Who is he?"

"I don't know him from Noctem Falls. I know him from scanning in pictures of the missing couples; this man was one of them. The second couple on the list," she whispered.

"Poor bastard turned feral after his mate was killed," Chistoff said in a soft voice.

Darian took off his jacket and covered the man's face.

"Oh Gods!" Elizabeth moved away from Gavriel towards the dead bodies.