Fingers were mindlessly tracing little circles on my arms in the early morning hours. Fingers that pulled my back closer into a warm chest while a gentle vibration rumbled against me, softly waking me from my sleep.

I blinked my eyes open, yawning out and stretching my arms out which only made Ethan pull me closer to him. "Go back to sleep," he grumbled.

I shook my head. "You are one cranky wolf in the morning."

He just tossed a leg over me and grumbled some more before he nuzzled my hair as his breathing leveled out to a soft snore. I rolled my sleepy eyes while my wolf shook her head at her male.

Turning, I grinned deviously in the back of my mind as I faced him. He looked so peaceful– so peaceful that I almost felt bad for what I was about to do. I paused for a moment and consulted my wolf, but she nudged me on. She was definitely Team Charlotte on this one.

I leaned up, letting my lips trace his jaw. "Ethan wake up."

"Mmmm," he groaned. "Coffee."

I bit back a laugh while my beast rolled her eyes. Scooting closer to him, my hands trailed up his firm chest and drew a soft instinctual vibration from him. "Wake up," I said before kissing the edge of his jaw.

"What are you doing?" he said, his voice groggy and husky.

My lips kissed below his ear as his arms pulled me closer to him, trailing down my back that shivered in subtle delight. "I want pancakes," I replied innocently.

"Blobs baby, they're intricately crafted blobs," he replied.

I bit back another laugh because I wasn't sure if Ethan was actually awake. "Well then," I breathed out, my teeth nipping playfully at his earlobe as my hand trailed further down his chest. "I want blobs. Blobs, bacon, and coffee."

"Coffee," he replied back. "Did you set the coffee pot last night?"

My hand teased the skin right above his boxers, causing the bond to lick its hungry lips. I moved down and nipped at his neck, my fingers slipping inside his boxers before I kissed right above his mark. "No, which is why you need to wake up," I replied, raking my nails teasingly up from his boxers and back up to his chest.

Suddenly I was on my back with tired blue-green eyes looking back at me. "I was having a good dream sunshine."

I gave him a mock pout. "How rude of me to disrupt you sleeping beauty."

He shook his head at me. "You're such a little shit you know?"

I chuckled then leaned up to kiss him. "I know, but I love you," I replied back before I kissed him again.

He groaned then pushed me back against the mattress, hands trailing down my legs that he started to part. "I love you too baby, even if you wake me up without my coffee."

"God you are such a crank," I said while rolling my eyes.

"It was a good dream sunshine!" he nipped at my collarbone then kissed me again.

"About?"

He chuckled darkly. "Get on your knees and I'll show you."

Ethan and I were sipping coffee in the kitchen with ghost smiles on our lips. He was flipping pancakes, or blobs, while bacon sizzled on another pan on the stove.

This morning helped me to push the wary fear of his trip to the mountains away, but only slightly. I still didn't like it, but I understood why he wanted to go–why he had to go. We had to look after our pack. That and we couldn't ask for our pack to stick their necks out for us if we were not willing to do the same. It wasn't fair, and we would be just as cowardly as the last leadership if we behaved that way.

That and we had to find the rogues. We had to know if it was just a smaller group or a whole army hiding out somewhere. We had to know so we could protect our pack–the thing we had already fought so hard for, we weren't going to let rogues or this 'Snake' take it from us.

Ethan paused for a moment, his hand frozen halfway from bringing his coffee cup to his lips before he let out a low growl. I raised a brow and eyed him curiously. "What is it?"

"Greg," he replied before he flipped a blob. "Apparently he did go home to screw his mate that was very in heat."

I leaned back in the barstool and shrugged. "It still doesn't mean that we were wrong? He could still have those walls for a good reason."

"True," Ethan said before he flipped another blob. "I told Leo to keep men on him just in case."

"Is everyone set to go home?"

Ethan nodded. "Andrea and Jaxon are staying, but Evan's moving them into the pack house. Jaxon wants to stay and help plan the trip with Deryl."

"Are they staying too?"

"Deryl is another but Angeline is going home. Jaxon was going to have Caden bring more of those files over."

"We could go through them today? It is a weekend, Lyanna, Andrea, and I could do that today?"

"That's a good idea sunshine," he replied. "I think there's one extra box in my office, but I'll have Ryder bring it with him when he comes up here."

Ethan scooped up some blobs for me, a few pieces of bacon, and plated them. I smiled, the pancakes were like very strange blobs, but still, very delicious blobs. He brought them to me then kissed my crown before he went back to make himself a plate.

"I like my blobs," I said while I smoothed some butter over them with a knife.

"And I like you on your knees, babe," he replied cheekily.

I shook my head and tried to hide my flush. Sighing, I squirted some syrup onto my blobs while I thought about the events of the past day, the knew information. "Do you think they are in the mountains?"

"Dad thought so, but, dad could be wrong. I think the only other likely place would maybe be those mines. The ice caves, while there is tons of room, they are dangerous. The floors crack all the time. They would risk losing too many rogues to the ocean."

I nodded. "The mines would be better."

"How so?" he asked as he walked to a barstool with a plate in his hand.

"Just from a strategic perspective. It would be easier to fight there. In the mountains, we can't link and there are those other packs up there; we don't know where their allegiance is, which could be bad for us."

Ethan nodded. "I guess we'll find out."

"Ya," I breathed back, dread creeping up as I bit into a blob.

Ethan and I ate our blobs without speaking of the mountains again, mostly because it made my wolf more than anxious. He reassured me all morning that it would be alright, and I wanted to believe him, but the thought of him up there just itched at me.

I was scrubbing our breakfast dishes after he left to go meet Deryl. Andrea and Lyanna were supposed to come over and help me start organizing and going back through the evidence we found; I prayed that we would find something that would spare the men from having to go up those damn mountains.

Looking up after I set the last dish out to dry, I saw Derek zipping through the trees with a large tote in his hand. I sighed and walked to the door right as he stepped on the first step.

His eyes were tired and red as he smiled at me. My wolf stirred and eyed her vampire; he let out a shaky breath and shrugged. "I don't want him to go. We fought about it all night. It's so stupid. Those damn caves are a death trap to the damn ocean. I didn't like it the first time and I definitely don't now."

"Come here," I said with a half smile.

Derek walked up the steps and across the porch to hug me to him. He let out another shaky breath then held up his tote. "I brought snacks."

"Mimosas?"

He smiled and kissed my temple. "I knew this was a good idea."

"If it helps," I said while stepping back inside the house. "I don't want Ethan to go either. It's–unsettling to say the least. My beast doesn't like it and I don't either."

Derek looked around the living room while I opened the refrigerator and pulled out some orange juice and champagne that Evie had brought over. "Going through evidence?"

"Ya, Ethan and I think that there may be something we missed. Want to help? Andrea, Lyanna, and I think Evie are coming."

"Sounds like a party," he replied.

I shrugged as I popped open the bottle of champagne. "I don't want him to go Derek."

He zipped to me and hugged me to him again. "I know."

I poured him some champagne then left him to fill it with orange juice when Andrea marched through the door. Derek and I looked up at her, her green eyes were tired yet angry as she let out a hot breath.

"He is such an arrogant male! What the hell?! He thinks he can just march up there like he's superman! It's insane! Totally stupid! Both of them kept telling me that they 'had' to do this. Those–"

"Andrea!" I injected. "Come here," I breathed out.

She closed her mouth and walked to me, hugging me as she trembled slightly before she rubbed her cheek against mine. "I don't like it Charlotte. I don't like it at all. I have a feeling about it."

"Me too," I sighed out. "Ethan won't budge."

She pulled back and nodded then looked at Derek. "I'm sorry about Elliot. If it helps I think they're all morons."

Derek breathed out a sharp laugh. "To the morons then," he said, raising his glass to her.

Derek took a sip while Andrea took the bottle for herself and started to pour herself a glass of champagne followed by barely enough orange juice to call the thing a mimosa.

"Do you think that there's anything up there? Really?" Andrea asked.

I shrugged. "Chris thought so, and we have a lot of circumstantial evidence to support it. I don't know. The mines make sense, maybe the ice caves, but I don't know."

Sipping my drink, Lyanna and Evie waved before they walked in. Lyanna groaned as she marched over to me. "Evan is such a dumbass. I told him this trip was a dumb idea and that he needed to talk to Ethan. I told him that it was stupid! He actually volunteered himself to go this morning! Can you believe that!?"

"Is he?" I replied quickly.

She shook her head. "No, Ethan said he needs him here."

Evie sighed and zipped to me. "I'm sorry."

"I hate it but we need to scout those areas. How else will we know?"

"We could keep digging?" Andrea shot back. "We have all these files here, we could comb back through our pack members–"

"Andrea that is so much time we may not have," I injected. "We have no idea how they are getting here. If they are 'poofing' across the border, then that means that they could show up whenever they wanted. We have to find them and figure out what we are dealing with so we can get rid of them. I hate it, I hate it so much it's making me sick, but telling Ethan that isn't going to help him–"

"But Charlotte, what if he doe–"

"Don't say that," I growled out, my skin shaking at the thought. I shook my head and pushed back that demon of fear that lashed out. "Don't say that, Andrea, because I can't deal with that right now."

Andrea closed her mouth and nodded. Lyanna sighed as Derek poured her a mimosa. "Charlotte's right, we have to be supportive as much as we hate it. The good news is it's a big group going. They'll be safer that way."

Evie nodded. "And Alex is sending some of our runners with them, they're wicked fast and sharp. They've gotten us out of tricky situations before, they can definitely handle this."

"Snacks?" Derek said meekly, holding up his tote which caused us all to laugh and blow away the looming cloud overhead.

We all ended up scattered around in the living room with paperwork, journals, and other random letters scattered about. Andrea was busy organizing it with Derek, while Lyanna, Evie, and I tried to look through everything for anything that could be useful.

"Ghostrider, you home?"

"Yes, what's up?"

"Got a box for you."

"Awesome," I replied sarcastically. "Bring it up."

There was soon a light knock on the door before Ryder opened it up and carried a cardboard box in, causing us all the groan at the sight. "What? Not happy to see me?"

I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Just set it wherever Ryder."

"Roger that," he replied before he set the box down next to Derek who hissed at the sight of it. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure," I replied before I waved him into the kitchen. "What's up?"

"Do you know if Ethan looked at the hunting schedules? I need to get them on the books so we don't get behind."

I chewed on my lip and shook my head. "I don't know but I can ask. Are we behind?"

Ryder shook his head. "No, but we need to stay on track. Winter will be here before you know it."

I sighed at the thought that made my nerves frazzle a little with stress. "I'll ask. If he doesn't get back to you by the end of the day then link me."

"Can do Ghostrider," Ryder replied with a soft smile. "And Char?"

"Yes?"

"It's going to be ok, you know? It's a good group going and I've gone up there twice before. It's not easy but it will be ok."

"Thanks, Ryder," I said with a half smile. "Hungry?"

"No, I promised Jake I go help him with the patrols. His mom's making us some lunch, and well, I can't really turn down food from mama Debbie."

"Alright, well be safe," I replied.

He dipped his head then headed out as I walked back to the living room. It looked like a tornado of papers had exploded in the space, which only made my beast and I groan a little more inwardly.

Evie sighed then zipped to the kitchen, fetching another bottle of champagne before she returned. "We should start fresh."

Laughing lightly I shrugged in agreement. Evie made us all another round of mimosas before we dove into the contents that were spread out.

I ended up looking through these history books, or at least that's what they looked like. There were different accounts of were history in them that I couldn't help but find myself engrossed in, especially things surrounding Aurora–the sister of all those brothers that started it all.

She was such an enigma to me. A powerful with that chose to sit aside and let her daughters do what needed to be done. It didn't make sense, but then again, maybe there was more to that story.

"Well," Andrea said before she took a sip of her drink. "What do we have?"

Evie shrugged. "Nothing here. Nothing that stands out at least."

"Char?" Andrea asked.

"Well," I said before I looked down at the books I had been reading through. "Just why? You know? Like why the hell do all this?"

Evie eyed me curiously. "We know most of that. The rebels have always wanted to be pure isolationists."

I bit my lip while my wolf mused. It seemed too simple. It very well may be that, but I had a feeling it wasn't. "I don't don't know."

"I agreed with Charlotte," Lyanna added. "I was going through some of these books with her, it just seems a bit simplistic. That and it feels like there's more going on."

"Mhmm," I hummed out. "Like Larissa's parents for example. I had no idea. I mean, I knew that she said vampires took them from her, but I had no idea about that mess."

Evie nodded with wary eyes. "It was such a bad deal. Leo felt so bad about it after, he and Levi really got into it. I know he regrets it and wishes he would have done things differently, but that incident seemed to spark something amongst both species. People became more territorial of their kind, feeding into rumors that were utter bullshit.

"Leo hated it as did Alex. They didn't want to disrupt the peace, but they wanted to do the right thing. I'm not saying they did, but–well, sometimes finding the black in white when everything is so gray is much easier said than done."

"What happened after?" Andrea asked.

"Oh, Leo was so much more strict with this region. It was zero tolerance," she replied.

"I just feel like there is something here," I added.

"Where Char?" Evie asked.

"The origin story. It's how this shit show all started right?"

Derek nodded. "That's right little one." He eyed me curiously for a moment, his fingers, tapping on the base of his glass mechanically. "What is it Char? What are you caught on?"

"Aurora," I breathed out. "I just–why stay behind and not help her brothers? Why did her daughters go?"

"No one knows," Derek replied. "Not even Leo does. They didn't see her again after they asked her to help. She stayed pretty well hidden."

"Do you think she was just scared?" Andrea asked.

"Perhaps," Evie replied. "She just kind of disappeared after they killed Hagan and Balak."

"Did Hagan have children?"

"He didn't have a mate," Derek replied. "If he did it wouldn't have mattered. Leo said they pretty much destroyed every place that his feet touched. They were very thorough, I doubt a mate would have survived that cleansing."

I shuddered. My wolf didn't like it either, the thought of so many innocent people dying out of fear, of children being murdered out of fear.

Fear.

Fear can make people do crazy things. Every day you see people doing things out of fear; start wars, concede to a fight, or undermine another because someone is whispering on their shoulder to do so–fear is whispering to them to do so.

My beast shook her head while I looked at the book. "Have the witches left?"

Derek shook his head. "Headed out soon, though."

"Come on Lyanna," I said, standing up while Andrea gave me a curious brow. "I have a few more questions for these bats."

Lyanna smiled deviously then stood, stretching tall while Evie nodded in approval.

"Want me to go?" Andrea asked.

I shook my head. "We won't be long, keep at it here and let me know if you find anything."

Lyanna followed me out the door where I pulled off my dress and quickly shifted, leaping into the air so my bones could crack and move into a place that they hadn't been in too long.

I shook out my dark fur and stretched. My beast was happy to be out, it had been too long. I made a mental note of it, and another mental note to take her hunting soon. We both needed to destress over chasing some unfortunate deer.

Lyanna ran with me back to the pack; racing me and nipping at my feet playfully as she moved beside me in sleek black fur. We wove through the trees, yipping at our pack members along the way until we approached a little cabin close to where our old one was.

Lyanna and I trotted over to a burrow; we quickly shifted to our skin and dug out some shirts and sweatpants to wear, before we walked towards the house where the three cooky ass women were enjoying what looked like coffee outside on the porch.

"Charlotte?" Dagny said.

"Luna," Melinda breathed out.

"Thorne," Ragna said like a whisper in the wind.

I groaned and walked forward with a polite smile. Ragna set her coffee down and walked casually down the steps. "Luna, to what do we owe the pleasure?"

"I have a few more questions for you three," I replied.

"Well we were having coffee," Ragna replied.

I nodded with a smile as my wolf chuckled in the back of my mind. "I can see that, and I would love a cup if you don't mind."

"I'll get it," Dagny said with a smile, her blonde-pink curls bouncing as she jumped up. "Cream or sugar?"

"Both," I replied, not letting my eyes leaving Ragna's. "Lyanna?"

"Would love some," Lyanna replied cooly. "Black please."

"Come on then," Melinda said, her green eyes swirling curiously. "It's not like it will hurt anything Ragna. She is the Luna and has been kind enough to put us up here."

Ragna looked me over again before she nodded slightly, turning on her heels to walk back up the porch. I looked over at Lyanna, who was burning holes in her back before she looked at me.

"What a bitch," she hissed out.

I bit back a smile and stepped forward. "Yup."

Melinda pulled two chairs up as Dagny came out with two cups for Lyanna and I. She smiled at us, her eyes almost sparkling as they met mine. I let my beast come forward and look her over; she didn't mind this witch, this one was like an innocent sunflower in a field of thorns.

"What is it you want to know?" She asked, handing me my cup with a warm smile.

"Thank you," I replied before taking a sip. "I want to know about Aurora."

"What about her?" Melinda asked, her green eyes turning more yellow as she looked at me.

"She had only three daughters?" I asked before I took another sip of coffee.

"That's right," Ragna replied. "Only the three."

"No one else?"

Rana nodded. "No, just Ariel, Amelia, and Anne."

"How do you know?" Lyanna asked before she took a sip of her coffee which was almost as black as her fur.

"It's been told for generations," Dagny answered. "And, if there was another line we would know. You can't hide powerful magic like that."

"So you really don't know then?" I prodded. "Arguably there could be one?"

Ragna scoffed. "No, we would have sniffed that magic out."

"Like you sniffed the rocks out?" Lyanna asked with a polite smile.

I mentally high-fived her, my wolf growling in the back of my mind in approval. Ragna's two front fingers twitched, causing the hair on my neck to stand.

Lyanna's beast came closer but mine reached out to her and calmed her. I took a long sip of my coffee and let my beast surge forward as close as she could come without me shifting; my blood hummed loudly, almost crackling before I looked up from my cup.

Dagny looked almost like she couldn't breathe while Melinda looked shaken, but amused. I looked over to Ragna, who eyed me with discontent. I let out a breath of annoyance. "I will not tell you to watch your fingers again."

Ragna chewed on the inside of her lip, her fingers painted bright electric blue were still twitching. "You ask a lot of interesting questions."

"Does that bother you?" I replied.

She raised her brows with a slight shrug. "Does your mate know you're here?"

"Why? Care to ogle at him some more?"

Her lips thinned before she scoffed out a hot breath and stood up. "Excuse me," she practically hissed out before she marched back inside the cabin.

Lyanna and I took another sip of our coffee, the moment still thick with tension before Melinda started to laugh. Dagny looked at her with wide eyes which caused Melinda to laugh into her coffee.

"What?" she replied innocently. "I haven't seen Ragna that ruffled up in a long time. It's good for her if you ask me."

I took a sip of my coffee so they couldn't see me smile. Dagny sighed and shook her head. "She's going to be in a mood all the way home."

"What else do you want to know wolf? I find your questions most interesting, and not in the same way Ragna does," Melinda said.

I eyed her then nodded slightly. "What of Hagan? There was no line from him or Balak?"

Melinda shook her head. "They killed anything that existed on the land that either of those two touched."

Dagny shuddered. "A dark time."

"Indeed," Melinda added. "A necessary evil it would seem."

My beast shook her head. I understood why they did it, but that doesn't mean I had to like it. I didn't like it. I didn't like thinking about women, children, and all those innocent people dying because of a damn sibling rivalry.

"They were really that afraid of a child?"

"If the child had a taste for revenge it could have caused problems, or that's what they say," Melinda replied.

"It doesn't mean they would have."

Melinda shrugged. "Because of what they did, well, it saved us from a horrible war. Kept us all safer than we would have been."

"Are we?" I asked, meeting her green eyes that seemed to flicker with something, something that looked like approval of my question.

She nodded to me in a way that looked like it was out of respect. "I misjudged you and I am sorry. I should not have pressed Levi like I did yesterday, it was wrong."

"Thank you, but that is an apology that you owe him," I replied into my coffee cup.

"Agreed, but it was on your land and disrespectful."

"Thank you," I said with a soft dip of my head.

"We don't know about the blood magic," Dagny said. "You have to understand, the disappearing or 'poofing,' the rocks, it requires magic that is hard to come by."

"Why?" Lyanna asked.

"You can't just have any blood for that magic, you need strong blood," Dagny replied with a slight shudder. "Blood that will support the spell depending on how powerful it is. That's not easy to come by, not easy at all."

"Right, it's not like strong supernaturals just go out and give their blood," Melinda added.

"Isn't that concerning to you all then?" Lyanna asked. "No offense, but obviously someone is getting it and using it. Isn't that a big ass red flag?"

"It is," Dagny breathed out. "There is a balance of things, a consequence to every action. Actions like that have very serious consequences that I shudder to even think about."

Melinda nodded in agreement, her eyes cast elsewhere before she looked back up at us. "We don't work with that kind of magic, it's forbidden by our laws. Some people obviously don't listen to those, but we do. Like Dagny said, there is a balance that magic like that would disrupt in a bad way. If you want to know more, I would suggest finding someone that has dipped around in it."

Sipping my coffee I looked back at Lyanna who sighed. Blood magic. The thought of it made my beast shudder. It sounded more than unnatural.

Balance.

The more I thought about the origin of things, of supernaturals, of the story Leo told Ethan and I, the more I couldn't help but think of how the balance of the world was severely altered when that happened.

Yet it seems like that story isn't finished like Karma was still trying to set things right.

The question, though, was how?

The next few days were more than hectic. Ryder and I squeezed in a hunt with our hunters before he, Ethan, Billy, Deryl, Ajax, and Jaxon would head north with a group of trackers, warriors, and some runners that Alex was sending over.

Every day closer to that day, the day Ethan would leave, made me feel more and more like I was going to crack. Like the weight of the pack was too much on my shoulders.

I tried to be supportive, but the thought of the trip made me want to vomit. One night I actually did.

Ethan kept trying to reassure me, he knew how I felt but he also knew that if he didn't go that we may put the pack at risk. We had to know what the situation with the rogues was, we had to know if they were hiding in the mountains where they could easily march onto our pack.

I tried to keep busy. The day before I had spent half the day with Evie going through the mess of paperwork and journals in our living room, then the other half helping Sam taking stock of her medical supplies that we were going to need more of. Angeline had agreed to send us some with Deryl on his way, she didn't like the trip any more than I did, but she understood. Still, even her voice shook a little when she spoke.

I walked into the house where Ethan and Ryder were going over a map with Billy, Deryl, Ajax, and Jaxon. I couldn't look at them, I couldn't look at it.

I smiled at them and said a very polite hello before I quickly made my way upstairs. Holding it all in was getting harder, putting on a brave face right now felt impossible because even the strong can crack and I felt like I was cracking.

Walking to the shower I tried to keep my mind off of it, off the fact that he was leaving tomorrow. It didn't help, though; no matter how much I scrubbed, I couldn't scrub away my fear. My fear was like a part of my skin now; ever-present as it made my skin crawl.

Laying in bed, in my spot next to his where his scent rolled off his pillow and over me did it. It pulled the tears out. Tears I was fighting, but the dread fueled by my itch won.

I hugged the covers tightly to me and tried to dry my eyes, but they kept coming. They kept coming until someone was wiping them away until he was wiping them away.

"Baby," he softly said to me. "Baby it's going to be ok."

"I feel bad about this Ethan," I forced out.

The bed dipped behind me before arms turned me around to face him then pulled me close to his chest. "I don't like it either but we have to Char. I won't just send Ryder up there with a few scouts by himself–"

"I'm not asking you to," I murmured back. "I'm afraid Ethan."

He kissed my hair and pulled me closer to him. "It won't be long and I will be back before you know it. I'll always come back to you sunshine."

"You better," I replied. "We won't be able to link."

"I know." Ethan took in a deep breath and then let it out. "It won't be for long, though."

I sat back and looked at him, at his face that I forever had burned into my mind and eyes that I would gladly drown in. "Just–" I sighed and looked back at him. "Just don't do anything stupid. Just come home."

He leaned over and kissed my forehead, pulling me closer to him before he let out a long ragged breath. "I will baby. I don't doubt your feelings about it, but we're going to have to do things like this for our pack, bad feelings or not."

"I know," I breathed out as he kissed the edge of my jaw. 

"No more talk of this," he replied before he kissed my mark.

I shivered while my hands instinctually wound their way through his hair. "And what do you want to talk about."

"Nothing baby, absolutely nothing," he replied before he kissed me.