Akela stared at Ezekiel, the uncle she never knew. Most of the pack had sensed the shift in their dynamics and had approached the Alpha, ready for whatever news Sam had come home with.

"What I'd really like to know is how he knew to send you here. How did Link know about the Shadow Mountain and Ezekiel being the Cizinec heir. Not to mention Allie..." Ameer commented from where he was leaning up on the kitchen counter. The ever pragmatic Beta was studying Akela with a deep frown marring his face.

"I think I can answer that," Hunter nodded from the doorway where he was stood with Grange.

They all looked at him.

"It was chaotic. Lots of mercenaries. Remember. Some came to help us, others were on Erberus' side. Gerry said there was a stranger with him until Sam came," Hunter shrugged.

Sam nodded.
"There was a large malamute looking dude there. And a load of dead guys," he shrugged.

"And there was a young pregnant girl with Grange," Hunter nodded.

Grange's mouth fell open.

"Yes! She was looking after Abel!" Grange grinned and looked at Akela.

"They were here?" Akela breathed.

"They fought for us against Erberus' rogues. It must have been them. You look like him and I was wondering why you felt familiar," Hunter nodded. 

A small grandfatherly smile softened his weatherbeaten face.

Ezekiel frowned.

"Where did they go afterwards?" He asked. 

His mind was on his sister.

"I don't know. They must have stayed nearby in the chaos afterwards... until you moved in here..." Grange frowned obviously scouring her memory.

Akela looked at Ezekiel with a frown. A somewhat worrying thought had come to her.

"But. Alpha Archer is your brother... and if my mum was your sister..." she asked. 

Ameer and Sam exchanged grins.

"No, love. Zion and Abel are not your cousins," Allie smiled.

Akela still frowned.

"Felan and Raksha had Ezekiel. Then Felan mated Avaris and had Archer. When Ezekiel was 10, Raksha went to the South and had Lexi. So... Archer and Lexi are not related," Grange explained.

"But... what did she do after she left mama?" Akela asked.

"We don't know. She came here to die. Your parents might even still have been here. Who knows. She might have made peace with Lexi," Ezekiel said.

Sam nodded.
"Or they had just gone..." he agreed.

"But she didn't mention Lexi!" Allie said.

"She might have to Damian," Ezekiel said quietly and looked at Akela.

"She really screwed things up that girl," Hunter sighed.

"But it does give us another reason to get Kira away from that psychopath," Ezekiel muttered.

"I'd say so," Sam nodded.

Ezekiel stood from the table and went out onto the lawn outside.  

To anyone looking, he appeared to be cuddling Yzma, but all his pack could feel his distress.

Allie shot Akela an apologetic look before she went out to him.
The tension radiating from their Alpha reduced the moment the Luna touched him.
Akela looked out at how his chin rested on her head and her face seemed to bury into his chest. They behaved as one unit, in harmony. Akela had watched more than once how they would draw strength from each other. Allie would drop everything to give him her strength after a fire, and he always had a cup of tea ready when she walked in the door from a hard day at work. 

Deep inside she longed for that kind of comfort.

A hand landed on her shoulder.  She turned to see Ameer with a serious look on his face.

"It's not your fault, short stuff. He's not upset because of you. He just wishes he'd been there for your mama," the Beta explained before squeezing her shoulder gently.

Akela nodded. She still felt responsible for the emotional turmoil of her alpha.

"He's an emotional one. He gets upset by anything..." Sam chuckled.

Soon, the pack drifted their separate ways. Sam took Aimee with him and jumped into his car, relieved that his journeys were over and that he would be spending the foreseeable future with Saleha and their two daughters.

The car taillights told Akela she wouldn't be seeing Aimee for a while. A deep sigh did nothing to suppress the ember of jealousy. As much as she loved her new friend, and as much as she was grateful for Aimee's patience with teaching her about the human world, seeing Aimee's face light up at the sight of her father brought up a deep grief for her parents. A look through the window towards the patio, revealed another couple as perfectly matched as her own parents. Allie and Ezekiel's bond was strong and true, just as Link and Lexi's had been.

Akela sunk down on a kitchen chair. If her parents had stayed. If Mama had only asked for Raksha Cizinec.

At the back of her mind, the thought of a pair of bronze coloured eyes rose towards surface. She felt her hands clench as they longed for the feeling of soft hair between her fingers.

She didn't know, but the sensation echoed across the fields and forest, causing the mountain pack medic to lose his focus on little Felan for a moment.
He looked up and his eyes dizzily focused on River, who was looking at him with a knowing little smirk.

"Luna," he said, smiling from the sudden rush of longing but worried because of the sadness that came with it.

"If Felan is healthy, I suggest you go into the valley. There is only one person who makes your eyes glaze over like that," River smiled.

"He's strong as a wolf and cute as a puppy," he grinned and handed the alpha heir back to his mother.

Carefully he hung his labcoat on the back of the door.

"Are you sure, Luna?" He asked.

River nodded.

"Gerry and Archer are going down there in a minute. Zeke has sent a mind link," River nodded.

The medic suddenly looked nervous.

"Do you think... Did she send her emotions to Abel as well?" Zion asked carefully, knowing her Luna senses would have picked it up.

River held back a wide grin as she shook her head. In front of her she watched him try to suppress a hopeful moment of joy.

"No. She needs you," River smiled and watched Zion practically run out to the old beaten jeep with his father and brother who both stared at him in surprise.

"Akela called for me," he grinned, too torn between happiness and worry for what had upset her to notice the exasperated grin exchanged between the two alphas in the front.

"Hoodie?" Archer asked.

Zion lifted the hood up over his head to hide the small smile spreading. His heart beat hard in his chest with delight that she had thought of him when she was in trouble, but with heavy beats, full of worry about what might have upset her.

Down in the valley, Akela was still sat in the kitchen drawing patterns on the grainy wood surface of the worn table.
She was at home.
She had always felt at home here. Her Alpha had always been kind and the pack were making her feel that she already had a family.
She thought of her mother. The desicion they had to make when she was pregnant could not have been easy. The dilemma of asking a newly formed pack to take them in and risk bringing Preston's henchmen with them, or being alone with their children.
Akela knew she had been a loved child. Kira and her had never felt unwanted. And her parents had been ridiculously in love with each other.
Just like Allie and Ezekiel. Their three children were wanted and loved too.
Perhaps all the love Raksha never knew, went into her children instead?
And somehow she knew Ezekiel would have loved Lexi too with all the love a big brother could give.
They were similar in some ways. Loving and fiercely protective.

Akela looked around her new home. There was room for another small house down by the lake. Her dad would have liked to see the morning sun rise above the trees.  And her mother could have had that peace she always wished for, but never found.

"Don't twist your mind too hard, sweetheart," Grange's maternal voice filtered through her introspect.

Akela looked at her adopted grandmother, just now realising her tears were flowing freely and her mind was open for anyone to read.

"From what you have told us, your dad was a trained delta. He would have known what risk he put this pack in if he stayed. My guess is they stayed on the outskirts, possibly even in the human town, for a while, before moving on," Grange smiled gently, a stack of potatoes in a burlap sack landed on the table. 

From sheer habit, Akela's hands grabbed the peeler and started working. 

"I didn't know your parents, child. But had they come here, they would have been welcomed," The older woman smiled while assembling a stew.

Akela nodded and let her hands get into the routine of everyday work. In the back of her mind, the link with Ezekiel simmered with a desperate mix of regret and sadness over a sister he never knew.

The work was nearly done, and Grange's gentle humming eased Akela's worries until a tall man strode in and sat on the seat next to her.

Carefully, Akela lifted her gaze to his and saw a steely determination in a pair of golden eyes.

"That bastard has my other niece!" Ezekiel stated.

Akela simply nodded.

"She - and her son - belong here!" he continued and a strong arm wrapped around Akela's shoulder in a surprising hug.

"Your parents might have been trying to avoid bringing a conflict with Preston into our lives, but I would have taken them in. She was my sister and I always wanted a big family," Ezekiel sighed sadly and kissed the top of Akela's head.

Instinctively she melted into her Alpha's embrace. It reminded her of the hugs her dad used to give her. As much as Akela loved her mum, she had always been a daddy's girl.

Right there, her long repressed grief surfaced again, and her body succumbed to heaving sobs while a steady beat of a secure heartbeat told her that her Alpha would never let her down, that she had a family.
And a home.