***Zara's POV***

With my eyes full of tears I started to say, "So just make sure you guys are out within a half hour. The next shift comes in around six but I don't want them to come in early by chance and..." I trailed on. My voice was failing me and it was becoming increasing harder to make the words sound coherent enough to continue.

"We'll leave now," Conlan stepped closer, "and we'll take you to your aunt." I started to feel uncomfortable.

"What?" I stared up at him. His jaw was tight and it looked like he was struggling with something. "No," I said firmly and glared at him.

He stepped closer again and we were nearly toe to toe. His forearm trapped me from escaping. "We'll take you to her." A low growl drew out the 'R' in 'her' as he repeated his command.

If I could have growled at him I would have. "Who do you think you are?" Something close to venom was dripping from my tone. "You are not the boss of me. I'm not part of your pack, nor am I your mate."

By this time he was shaking in anger and hammered the concrete wall behind me with his fist. "Listen. Rogue." Needle pricks stabbed me in the heart when he said rogue with such revulsion. "Somehow, you are involved with our mission, and you keep popping up." Conlan insinuated in a deadly calm voice. He was emitting enough Alpha dominance to make the other two wolves bow their heads in an involuntary pose.

He went to grab my arm but I was quicker. I have had enough of him and his domineering ways. Always invading my personal space. Not even Mr. Conlan Northwood, Beta of the Sacred Moon Pack, could stop me from slamming him against the concrete wall. "Fuck. Off." I spat on my way out the doors. Fuming, I slammed the double metal doors open with a deafening bang. There was some shuffling and muffled shouts but I was already stomping through the gravel parking lot to my car. Punched my car into gear and shot out of there like a bat out of hell. Down the road in my rear view mirror I caught a glimpse of angry Conlan shouting at a troubled James and a sulky Theo.

Glancing now at my own reflection, I looked horrible. My nosebleed came back, and tears stained my cheeks. 'What the hell is up with these nosebleeds?'

An hour later I was home. The setting sun illuminated the hanging plants in my kitchen window between the different limbs from the trees outside. I stopped to stare at the beauty. Tears sprung from my eyes. 'Grandma loved plants.' She would give me seeds from her garden for my birthday. 'Here darling.' "Grow good seeds to reap good things." I finished my grandmother's saying out loud.

***

Cold mountain air helped keep me alert during my three and half hour drive to the border of Eden Territory. Auntie's house was just a few minutes out of Pineloft from where her shop was on the edge of my home town. When I pulled up the dirt driveway I saw that the lights were on in her old A framed house. More cars than I've ever seen were parked in front of her white wrap around porch. A few people, I assume from the Veiled Moon Pack, stood straighter when my car rolled in line with the others. They eyed me from their positions as I let myself in and few growled.

Walking through the house I realized that I haven't been to Auntie's in a long time. The feeling of warmth and nostalgia filled me up. I choked up when I saw an old picture portrait of the four of us: Grandma, Auntie, and my mother and I. 'There used to be four of us. Now it's just Auntie and me.'

Voices murmured through the house from the bright living room.

"Come in Zara." Auntie called. Everyone went quiet. I walked in to see Auntie at her usual armchair. Next to her was Alpha Patrick. He greeted me with a small hug and warmth in his eyes. Others looked disgusted with my presence and formed disapproving cliques around the living room and fireplace.

"It's good to see you." I said to the Alpha.

"Yes. Nice seeing you too, stranger." He smiled at me. "Stranger, is how you see me now, huh?"

A little pang of guilt pricked my heart. My throat felt a little dry and tears threatened to form.

The father like Alpha looked at me pointedly with a ghost of a smirk playing at the corners of his lips. "Zara, my dear." He sighed. "There is no need to be formal with me you know that. If it wasn't for the situation at hand," his voice broke slightly, "I would..."

I rested my hand on his arm in reassurance and squeezed lightly. His saddening eyes met mine and we smiled weakly at each other.

My gaze left him to rest on Auntie's face. She had more wrinkles than before and her bun was only half way up giving her a really unkempt appearance. Her eyes were red when she smiled weakly at me. I slipped my hands into hers and returned her smile with fresh tears in my eyes.

"Oh sweetheart." She sobbed. I let her rest her head on my shoulder while I tried to sooth her with small comforting words. My heart was breaking for her. Grandma and Auntie were like real family to me even though we didn't share an ounce of blood. Watching my strong loving Aunt breakdown was gut wrenching. From the movement around the room I'm sure Alpha Patrick has told his pack members to give us some privacy.

Some of the members grumbled, "Why, are we even here? It 's just a rogue and her witch family."

"I heard that her family was kicked out of the pack and -"

"Not another word. Show her respect. She is the granddaughter of the Alpha before me." Alpha Patrick was snarling. "And those witches have helped our pack plenty! If it weren't for this family then we wouldn't have lived in peace for so long."

I kicked the chair the Alpha was no longer sitting in and he gave me a look that softened when he looked at me. He nodded in understanding and continued to usher the rest of the pack out of the room.

After her sobs lessened I asked, "Auntie. Can you tell me what happened?" She looked up at me with such worry. Her brown eyes went back and forth between mine and she held in a gasp.

"They knew. The dark witches took her because of her gift. I'm sure of it." She sat back in her chair and pulled her shawl tighter around her crossed arms. The fire light flickered across her frame as the crochet shawl created longer shadows that danced over her, aging her. I had to gulp back the unsettling feeling that I wasn't going to like the next part. "I wanted to tell you last week when you called about your near discovery, but I didn't want you to give up all that you had worked for. Mother would have hated that."

Coldness seeped into my bones.

"Are you saying they took Grandma because they were trying to find me?" I had to step back and I shook my head in dismay. Suddenly it was chilly as I stared into the flickering flames.

"The day before she was taken." Auntie sighed. "She said that her time was nigh and that she would show the way for the lost. Not to be afraid or wag tongues until it was time." She stifled a sob. "And that she would be at peace -" Her lips curled back as she was still trying to talk through the sadness from losing Grandma. "I thought she was just preparing for the future, not that her time had really come. She just always talked that way. Her knack for telling but not really saying anything was always her way of speaking." My aunt looked back at me this time, "I should have listened to her more. I should have done... something." She trailed off with a faraway look.

"There is nothing you could have done. If that's how her gift worked then ..." We gave each other a sad smile. Thinking of the people we have lost. Auntie reached for my hand and I came to her to get it. I knelt down next to her chair and just held her hand. We stayed that way for a while.

"Sorry." Alpha Patrick interrupted. "I have some more business to discuss with you two."

Auntie squeezed my hand. "Alpha Patrick is the one that identified Mother and brought her to the mortuary."

"How did this happen? Where was she?" I asked trying to put the pieces to the puzzle together to make sense as to why Alpha Patrick had anything to do with Grandma.

"Another pack visiting the area called it in for assistance." His expression was one of loss. "When I got there I knew it was her and that I needed to tell the two of you, but Willow told me back when your mother passed and you were all going through dark times that when it was her turn-" he scratched behind his head while looking at the wooden flooring. "That when she dies she wanted to keep a promise. She said that it was her debt for her gift. When asked what she meant she said to wait a week. She even made me swear to her that I'd do as she asked." He closed his eyes and softly spoke, "I'm sorry."

"Why did another pack have to call for assistance?" My tone took a darker turn.

"Yeah why?" Auntie asked curiously.

He was hesitating and looking completely every inch his age. His hand went up to graying hair and rested on his sloping wild eyebrows. "He was-" Alpha Patrick looked extremely uncomfortable as he tried to find the right words. "He said that she was a person of interest in a case and she died shortly after he questioned her."

"He who?" I felt like the pieces were about to fall into place and that I could almost see the person behind his answer.

"Beta Conlan from the -" He started to say as I cut him off.

"Of the Sacred Moon Pack." I finished sarcastically for him. "The nerve of that man!" Anger started to flood inside me.

Car lights beamed across the room. Then the sound of car doors thudded from outside. The more I looked at the Alpha the more stressed he looked.

"Not great timing." He groaned.

"It's him isn't it!" I seethed as I whipped around to the doorway I came through earlier. His heavy footsteps were coming down the hall from the entrance way, but they stopped suddenly. My patience was gone as I stormed into the hallway to confront the Beta. Alpha Patrick tried to stop me but I yanked his hand away. Standing there in the middle of the hallway was a dumbfounded Conlan staring at a portrait on the wall. The picture portrait of my family that I took the time to stare at earlier. Irritation clawed at me. "If you're here to take my aunt too then you'll have to get through me, Witch Hunter."

"Is that Ingrid -" He looked from the portrait to meet my glare. "Thorne."

*****************************************

Hello readers!

I hope you all are enjoying the story so far. It's about to get even more heated between Zara and Conlan. :D

What do you all think about Zara and her family?

Or

Conlan?

Thanks for all the love so far! 206 reads and 13 votes! Amazing! LOVE YOU GUYS!

-Lynne