It's hard trying to get your life back together after you've been missing for a month. But that's just what I was trying to do.

I had been the faerie queen's attempt at a thrall for about that long in the real world. For me it had been a few days at best but time passes differently in Elphame.

So now I was playing catch-up and I hated it. Thankfully, I had had Zee and Gabriel to run the shop for me so I hadn't lost business or customers or completely lost my only source of income. But there was still the matter of my completed destroyed trailer that had gone up in flames thanks both to the Faerie Queen's lackeys and some of Adam's pack members. I was lucky that my boyfriend, the Alpha of the local werewolf pack, lived right next door.

I still felt it was too soon to move in with him because I knew it would cause too much strain in the pack, many of whom still felt that allowing me, a coyote, in meant trouble for the whole group. But I could stay there until I got back on my feet.

I was sitting in the kitchen playing Scrabble with Jesse, Adam's Daughter, and two of Adam's wolves – Warren, his third and one of my best friends and Ben, who ranked pretty low and was always a bother due to his language and opinions on women. He had gotten a bit better these past few months but sometimes you really did just want to hit him.

I was so zoned out I missed what had caused the current argument between the two wolves. From what I could tell, Ben had tried to play a word that Warren didn't feel was appropriate or a real world and the scrabble dictionary was on the table with the latter flipping through pages madly. I was just about to ask Jessie, who was trying her hardest not to laugh, when my phone rang.

"Mercy." The voice on the other end of the line said before I even had a chance to say hello. It was Stefan. I hadn't seen or heard from my vampire friend (could I call him that or was he more like an acquaintance?) in a few months. After Marseilla, the Seethe leader, had tortured Stefan for her own personal gain a few months ago, he had broken away from the other vampires and had been recovering and doing his own thing from what I understood.

"Stefan? What's the matter?" I may not have talked to him in a while but I could tell from the tone of his voice that something was amiss.

"Someone has dropped a half dead werewolf on the Seethe's door," He started as I made a mental note to ask him about his current political affiliations later, right now I was more concerned with the half-dead wolf. My heart started to beat furiously and the silence in the room reminded me that there were two other wolves with me who had overheard that bit as well. "But not one of Adam's, don't worry." A bit of the weight was lifted off my shoulders and a glance at Warren and Ben told me that they were feeling the same way.

"Who then?" I asked before I could stop myself. It was really unlikely that Stefan knew who this wolf was if it didn't belong to Adam. Heck, I wasn't sure Adam would even know. The only one we could really be certain of when it came time for identification was Bran, the Marrok.

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Marsilia says she is one of the Debellatio. We have stabilized her but you but that's about all we can do. You and Adam need to come and get her." Another pause. "And call the Marrok." He hung up and I turned to the others at the table. It seemed our scrabble game was over now. Warren, always a step ahead, already had his phone to his ear as he dialed Bran. I got up from the table and made my way up to Adam's home office to tell him what was going on – Jesse and Ben at my heels.

"What's going on?" The pink-haired teenager asked. I had forgotten that she was the only one at the table who hadn't been able to hear the other side of the conversation. "The Vampires found an almost dead wolf on their doorstep that doesn't belong to Adam. They want us to come and get her." I luckily didn't have to repeat the story one more time because the aforementioned Alpha, met us on the stairs.

His face was hard and confused. He must have felt that something was amiss through our mate bond – which I had a tendency to leave wide open sometimes. "Stefan also mentioned something called the Debellatio but that's about all I got out of him."

"We'll get her. Ben – grab the keys to the Escalade in the garage."Ben would be going with us, I guessed, for extra support in case it was needed. The Escalade was one of the vehicle's in Adam's possession that didn't get used that often. It was specially outfitted in the bag to hold and transport a violent or injured wolf without injury to anyone else involved.

The Brit trotted off down the stairs ahead of us and we followed, meeting Warren at the bottom. "Just got off the phone with Bran who Stefan also suggested we call - " I knew this, but he was repeating it for Adam who hadn't heard the phone call. "He seemed very shocked and very concerned. He said he'll be down before the night is over." I didn't doubt it. As the Marrok, he needed to be all over the country and had to get there as quick as possible. He had a jet or two that he employed for this very reason.

"Jesse, stay here and tell Aurielle where we went. I think she's downstairs. Have her call Darryl and get him over here for when we get back. Ben and Warren, I guess you'll be coming with us as it seems you've already elected yourselves to help."

We climbed into the massive SUV and Adam pulled out of the garage. I tried to process everything that was going on. We were driving to the Seethe's residence to pick up a nearly dead werewolf that didn't belong to Adam. She was someone though if both Marsilia, who wasn't a wolf herself, and Bran, who was the Alpha of all Alphas in the United States and a very old wolf, had heard of her. So many questions needed to be answered.