He still had his beard and long hair covering part of his paralyzed face. Azura had seen Zahair like this only for a short while as he had spent most of his time shifted. It wasn't until Marric had ordered him to shift that he had obliged. Even as a human, Zahair had mastered the art of going unnoticed and disappearing into the background. Something that was no longer possible now.

He remained silent for a while as his eyes begged her not to force him to talk. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Killian shifting his weight around and wanting to speak up. She shushed him with only one finger before he could even utter a single letter while keeping her eyes fixed on Zahair.

"I need to hear this from Zahair. He was the only one there. He can speak for himself."

Zahair stared at the ground for a moment before nodding slowly and meeting her eyes. He took a deep breath and licked his lips while his fingers were fidgeting with the zipper of his coat.

When the first words passed his lips it was clear how much his paralysis affected it. It was slow, emphasizing every letter and syllable. He was hissing and had trouble getting past some syllables to move on to complete the word. It almost sounded like he was drunk, making up words as he went. He sometimes swallowed a word he had just started to try and pronounce it again as he was clearly struggling to be as coherent as possible. Zahair would sometimes grunt and groan out of frustration if things did not come out of his mouth as he wished they would. Azura could follow him although she had to adjust to his form and tempo. Because he was so focused on single words, the sentences he created sounded weird and disjointed. There were no clear pauses and stops and there was no way to distinguish if he was asking a question or stating facts.

His voice, on the other hand, was really soft and gentle. If he wasn't handicapped by the paralysis, Azura believed he could probably sing beautifully.

"I--took--Luca--to--the--adviss... adviss--erss like--ordered." That first sentence seemed to drain him of all his energy straight away.

Zahair paused to take a few deep breaths as he still seemed as nervous as before. Azura couldn't help but notice how he skipped the last s of Lucas's name just to make it easier to continue speaking. She did relax a little as Zahair spoke up, content he had actually obliged to her. In a weird way, it was a positive thing that he did. It showed her he was willing to go that extra mile to get her trust back.

"I--believed--Marric. The--advi... group--wass--there. I--took--Luca--down--but--when--we--arrived--many--guard--prevent--uss--ac... access."

Zahair kept fidgeting with the zipper as he took another break.

"He talks weird."

Azura snapped her head around to the left as Kaenan walked up to her. From the corner of her eye, she saw Floyd had made himself comfortable against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest and a denigrating smirk on his face.

"But they're not bad... not like the other two." Kaenan smiled and kneeled down to the level of the two snow leopard shifters.

"Why are you scared of Azura?" Kaenan asked.

Azura was a bit taken back by the forwardness that Kaenan was showing. He was just so pure and innocent and life to him wasn't complicated. He simply managed to make everything black or white after considering a lot of things. Neither Killian or Zahair answered immediately and Azura actually took a step back letting Kaenan do his thing.

Killian scraped his throat and after examining Kaenan carefully he answered. "Scared is not the right word. We want to make things right. We made mistakes even though we did not know it at that moment. We tried to fix them sooner, but it failed and it was already too late to prevent everything from happening."

Kaenan let the words sink in before he turned to Azura.

"You should forgive them. I don't like seeing you angry. Maybe they can help find Lucas."

Azura bit her lip and closed her eyes for a moment as a small smile formed on her lips. If only everything was as easy as Kaenan could sometimes make it out to be.

"Maybe they can, Kaenan..." She softly whispered back to the boy who looked more like a man than a boy. "I truly hope so."

"Good! Can I go home now?" Kaenan jumped up and brushed himself off as his gaze alternated between her and Floyd.

"No, not alone!" Azura looked up in surprise as both she and Floyd exclaimed the same thing at the same time.

"Sorry, Kaenan, listen to your brother. I have to know a few more things before we head back. I doubt Floyd will leave me alone before that so you're stuck with us." He pouted a little but recovered swiftly and gave Killian and Zahair a small wave before trotting over to Floyd again.

Azura turned her attention back to Killian and Zahair and sat down, facing them at the same height and eradicating any build up walls and power differences between them. Kaenan's words had their effect on her and she was done being the bad person. The more open she was to them, the more they would tell her and maybe it was possible to actually start building up the trust again.

"Please, Zahair, continue your story. I still need to know what happened." She asked instead of demanding this time and her change of posture had a visible effect on the two before her as they seemed to relax a little more as well. The worst of the previous tension had been removed from the air.

"Marric... he planned... to grab Luca for hisss... drug tess-ting. When I... realized... that, I told him to fight. I did too."

Now Zahair seemed more comfortable the change to his way of talking was a world apart. He still spoke slowly, taking his time before letting a word cross his lips, but he was not obsessing at pronouncing everything in a perfect matter.

"After beating the men... I told him... to hit me and... run. He reff- ref" Zahair stopped and sighed frustrated. "Reffusssed at first... I told him again. He did hit me... in the end, but more guards arr-" Every time Zahair would stumble and fight with a word Azura did not interfere and would patiently wait for him to finish what he was saying. "-arrr-ived and they t-took him. I c-couldn't help... There were... too many."

Silence overtook them as Azura replayed the whole conversation over in her head. He really hadn't known... If she would believe him, it would mean Zahair would have fought alongside Lucas against the guards. Lucas had fought them of... She had never seen him fight before and he rarely lost his temper, unlike her. Zahair wanting Lucas to hit him seemed logical as it would be strange if Zahair came out of the struggle without a single hair on his body harmed. Marric would be smart enough to know Zahair would have helped him so it was the only option.

"So let me rephrase," Azura spoke up after overthinking everything. "Marric actually has a group of advisers discussing terms and conditions if the two groups of snow leopard would come together."

"Yes. It was actually his way of keeping the rest of the village calm and obedient. They believe the advisers actually hold power as if they were a council, but in reality, it's all a farce to keep the people happy." Killian confirmed her suspicions and she gave him a nod to let him know she understood.

"Alright, so when Zahair took Lucas there, Marric had already ordered his guards to take him without you guys knowing anything of this plan. It probably was a very last minute thing plan to use Lucas... Do you guys know what might have caused for that to happen?"

"Luca... he sssh- ssshiff- changed at five year old. He..."

"He's an ancient soul like me..." Azura finished what Zahair was trying to say this time. "Fuck... He screwed himself over by mentioning it. I never knew that about him till that point as well. Probably because he never thought it mattered."

Azura leaned back on her hands and stared up at the sky letting everything sink in. The sun was shining down on them now, warming her skin and she enjoyed every bit of it until she felt the presence of Floyd next to her as he blocked the sun and cast her face into shadow.

"I'm going to contact Andreas. This show has gone on long enough. It was fun watching you decide whether or not to kill them or me, but now nothing is going to happen, I'll have to inform Andreas of intruders on our grounds."

Azura opened one eye as she snarled at him but didn't move for the rest.

"Really? You just want to agitate and provoke me is it not? I don't want Andreas here and I don't need him here. I'll inform him later. His presence would only rile me up as you are doing right now. By the way, Floyd, meet Killian and Zahair. I'd prefer if you would refrain from abusing them as of now as they are my guests and no longer your captives. Why won't you take Kaenan out of here now? I have things to discuss with them."

Azura had closed her eyes again but felt Floyd's presence next to her. He wasn't stupid enough to try anything now. In fact, she had to admit he was actually a rather smart player. If only he could sidestep his hatred for everything different than werewolves.

"Oh no, that ain't happening, Azura. I'm staying here and keep watch all the time. I don't want you planning on overthrowing this pack with them while I'm gone." Floyd spit on the ground before Killian and Zahair. "Fifteen minutes. Then I'm mind-linking Andreas."

He walked away and took his position against the tree again. Kaenan was walking around casually, taking pictures of anything that piqued his interest. Both Killian and Zahair made themselves a bit more comfortable after sitting in the same position for quite a while, a hand and fingers entwining together.

"I hope you and Lucas gave the first few guards a good whooping, Zahair."

He actually gave her something that should resemble a smile in response and she took that as a confirmation.

"Azura... The only reason Lucas survived the drug is probably because of his ancient soul." The serious tone in Killian's voice brought them all back the matter at hand. "They... They have been working on that damned stuff as soon as Marric got into power. They have tested it often and it always had the same result. It wasn't pretty... That boy that went missing over a year ago?"

Azura felt her throat close up when Killian mentioned Johnathan. She hadn't known the young man personally, but Lucas and Jeff had. He had joined them and a few other men on a trip to find more traces of the blue-eyed snow leopards over a year back in Pleyvale and the men had returned without him. Almost a year later the boy's body was found, heavily mauled and clawed. It had been in such a bad state, the authorities didn't deem an autopsy necessary as the cause of death seemed obvious.

"I lied back when I first met you and Lucas. I'm sorry... If I had known then what I know now, things would have been different, believe me."

"His name was Johnathan." Azura interrupted Killian coldly.

"Right... Johnathan... Marric had the drug tested on him too after keeping him locked away in the research department as a testing subject. I never knew until just before you guys showed up. Marric had kept it hidden from almost everyone. Apparently the boy had gotten lost and some goons from Marric found him before you guys did. After he died from the drug, Marric had his body mauled and brought over to your territory."

The pained expression on Killian's told Azura enough. For a moment, she had become angry again with him for lying to her in the first place, but she knew why he had done it.

"How come you were Marric's right hand and never knew about this stuff?!" It was something that she had asked herself several times now. Killian let out a cynical scoff and lightly shook his head.

"Marric has two agendas. One is the show he puts up for everyone to see. The advisers, me, his whole facade is built around it. Then he has his second agenda. I know he has other people supporting him. They run the research department and everything shady. I know a little about this, but I usually got informed after. Marric let some things shine through to me but I never could interfere or do anything about it. He did trust me to confide in me with such matters but never to a full extend to let me in on everything. It was... complicated."

While Killian talked, Zahair had sunk back in his old routine. Being there, but practically invisible. Azura glanced over at Floyd who was clearly listening in as well even though he probably had no idea what was going on. Kaenan had made himself comfortable next to the stream, clearly bored out of his mind and not all paying attention to them anymore.

"How many victims has this drug made?" Azura asked while staring at Kaenan as he was playing around with the water in the stream.

"Many..." Killian shot a nervous glance over at Zahair who just gave him a small nod to continue. "Your mother... She was one of the first."