Prologue

"Hear anything lately?" I asked Dom, it was a pointless question but I felt compelled to ask it regardless. It had been two months since Ryann disappeared with the rogues, much longer than any of us thought she would have been gone. We had a few leads on where they had taken her, but none of them ever proved to be true. We had been meeting like this at D's twice a week since her hearing, and even though the information well had been dry for a while.

"Nope," Dominic said, running a hand through his hair. He was taking her absence hard, with everything that came out during her hearing I understood his frustration. He just wanted to get her back to see if they could fix things, to see if there was anything left to fix.

"It's killing me Cole, I don't know what to do anymore. I have checked every lead I could and none of them have come up with anything." He looked over to Juke and Luca, sitting on the other side of me. Their faces didn't hold any good news either.

"Anything?" he asked them hopefully.

"I haven't heard a thing Dom, I'm sorry," Juke said back. "I have every contact at the Academy that I trust keeping their ears open on this. The school year will be starting soon, I'm just worried I won't have enough time to put into this once I'm teaching again." He grimaced at the thought, as did I. The likelihood that we would find her alive was decreasing by the day.

Luca looked like he was ready to explode. He might have been taking it just as bad as Dom. They still weren't getting along very well since it came out he and Ryann had slept together. I knew he didn't have the same kind of feelings for her that Dom did, but Dominic wasn't so easily convinced.

"We just need to keep checking the campsite and checking our leads," I told them. Ari was staying at the campsite every chance he got, outside of his own cases he was working. He wound up being a very good asset in this whole mess, we all considered him a friend before, but he was part of the family now. Everyone except Dom that is, he ignored Ari almost completely, I think he could sense Ari's feelings for Ryann and it wasn't something Dom could deal with. Not on top of everything else.

"Something will happen, someone will slip up with some credible information, and we will find her." I said it with as much conviction as I could manage.

"Yeah, but are we going to be finding her dead or alive?" Luca blurted out to me, he looked like he didn't mean to say it out loud. It was always in the back of our minds though, and the same worry was echoed on our faces.

"I think those thoughts are better left in our own heads Luc, right now we need to stay positive. It's getting harder to remember why but I know we just need to try," I told them. "London is going to try to dream walk with her. They haven't done it since they were kids so I hope it works. Maybe she can give us some information about where she is." I was thinking it was our best shot at finding a good lead. She was working on it with Ari and they were able to make some progress. I wasn't going to mention that to Dom though, it was still a bit touchy for him to think of Ryann with him. They seemed to have something there too and I'm sure Dominic could feel it too.

"Ryann would have to be sober enough for that Cole," Dominic said to me. I nodded my head, understanding that was probably the main reason that London was having such a hard time reaching Ryann.

"She is with the rogues, not out on vacation," Luca said, he sounded like he really wanted to believe it too.

"She will come back, we just have to be patient and vigilant. We'll find her," I told them. They all nodded in agreement and as if on cue we all raised our glasses.

"Best while you have it use your breath, there is no drinking after death," Juke said, trying to muster a smile as we all threw back our shots.

When we placed them back down Juke looked to us and said, "Gods, we need a new toast."

Chapter 1

After almost eight weeks at this camp, I was still getting challenges. They weren't coming every day anymore, but it was still often enough to keep me exhausted by at end of the day. After that first night, and the rogues that thought they could take me on, others began thinking it was a good idea too. Reynold and Steph tried to talk some of them out of it, but they always ended up insisting it had to be done.

As to why they felt the need to challenge me, well, that differed with the person. Some thought I was a spy, and others just wanted to take whatever spot they thought I held at the top. Idiots, one look at my interaction at camp would tell any sane person that I wasn't a decision maker here.

All the fighting didn't bother me, unless they tried to come at me at night. I liked my sleep and being woken up to fight someone was a quick way to piss me off. I was a damn shape shifter, my night vision was almost as good as it was during the day, so using the dark to an advantage wouldn't work with me. Not that anyone was smart enough to realize that.

You wouldn't hear me complaing, I was getting in some much needed practice. I was fighting better than I ever had been before, my technique in the hybrid form was impressive and lethal. I didn't have to worry about losing control here, I could care less who I tore to shreds. I had only snapped a couple of times, after the first time I took out part of the crowd they decided to set some ground rules.

Someone with brains decided they needed to keep their numbers strong, and we now fought to submission only. They even made up rules on when and where the challenges could happen. I had to fight in the cages now, with a minimum of twelve hours' notice before the fight. The arena was reinforced with silver, and always armed by some of the rogue guard members.

Once word got around about what I could do, there was always a gathering crowd for the fights. I could see people jockeying for a good spot to see the action. I tried to hold back as much as I could, but sometimes I had no choice but to go all out. When it came down to it, I had yet to be beaten, the end result was always the same.

Outside of all the fighting, I was met with pretty strong resistance form the community members. They made no move to welcome or talk with me, and it served me just fine to keep it that way. When I got curious and asked some people, I found out the main consensus was that I was not wanted. They called me unnatural, a threat, they said I could never be trusted, you name it someone called me it.

It was thrown around I was planted there to infiltrate their cell, which had to be the predominant theme when they talked about me. This made it clear that my mother hadn't let anyone in on the events that led to me coming here.

It was even said that I was there just to mate with Reynold and Trenton, this one usually set me on a war path, and ended with the gossiper in the medical tent. The gossip mill at camp was as bad as it was at home. Of course, most of these were never said to my face, everyone had seen me fight enough to not want to court my anger.

The main downside to all the fighting was that I had little time to plan any kind of escape, I had yet to find a patch of land around camp that wasn't warded or guarded. When Steph said that it was heavily fortified, she wasn't lying. This was possibly the best case of witch work I had ever encountered, every inch of this place was covered. Needless to say, I never met said witch, if I had I would have killed her on the spot and gotten the hell out of dodge. I guess they knew that though, and it was the main reason she was kept separate from me.

As for my mother, well, I had managed to not say one word to Aurielle in all my time here. After I had found her outside her tent, I had put the pieces together fairly quickly. I spent the entire night pacing my tent, fuming and trying to figure everything out again, almost wearing a hole in the bottom of my bedroom. What I couldn't figure out that night, I quietly asked around about in the hopes of getting some information.

I found out from Steph that Aurielle was behind the deal with Kyle, and orchestrated the rest of the events that followed, up until my Council hearing. Steph didn't want to talk about things further, she said I had to talk to Aurielle to get the rest of the story. I needed to get the rest of the story, but I couldn't imagine talking to her without trying to kill her, and somehow I didn't think that would end well for me.

I still didn't know what her main motive was to unite these rogues. I still didn't know what her endgame was, or how she was going to be using me. It was childish and stupid not to try to talk to my mother. The worst part was I knew what I was doing, it was a waste of my time here not to be gathering information. But every time I looked at her, I wanted to rip her throat out. I couldn't get past the anger, it probably didn't help she looked just like Kyle. It was like a nightmare wrapped in a nightmare, and I couldn't think of a plausible solution that didn't involve me murdering them all in their sleep.

At the end of the day, nothing change the fact that my own mother had orchestrated everything, killed any chance I had to make a decent future for myself. In a way, the idea of having someone to blame was liberating. I was still too stubborn not to carry guilt about what I had done, but I could finally shovel some her way.

"Another one Gus," I tapped my glass and moved it closer to the bartender for a refill. It was no surprise to me that the camp had a makeshift bar, soldiers and alcohol went hand in hand, and it was a relief to know it was there. The mess hall, that at night contained the bar, was in a big tent at the far end of camp. At the back part of it, someone had built a long wooden bar top held a dozen or so stools. Some sat drinking at the tables in the middle, I could hear poker games going tonight, and some sat here and there in the large space surrounding. It was so typical looking, if I got just wasted enough, I could pretend I was somewhere else.

Gus raised an eyebrow at me. "You sure about that Ryann?" he asked me, looking with concern.

"No one comes for me at night anymore big guy, everyone knows I'll kill them if they come in my tent and wake me up," I told him. I liked Gus, I thought to myself for the thousandth time, he even looked like a Gus. He was in his late forties I would say, with a large frame encased in thick muscles, bright blond hair that he kept short, and a perceptive eye that missed nothing around here. He worked with some of the weapons during the day, and every night we had a standing date here.

"You have to slow down a little kid, or you're going to drown in all that self-pity. At some point you will have to face your demons. How come you can kill all those morons that challenge you, but you can't fight against what's in your head?" he asked me, pointing and touching the side of my temple. It was my opinion that bartenders were the wisest of all beings, and I threw him an appreciative glare that held the promise of violence if he continued without pouring my drink. I was not in the mood tonight.

"Oh Gus, stop being a buzzkill. I have so many demons right now they might encompass their own ring of hell. I just want to get through today," I said, a familiar phrase leaving my lips. It was my mantra the last two months. It wasn't healthy but it was all I was capable of at the moment. Gus refilled my glass rolling his eyes at my comment. He had heard it enough times he knew it was coming.

"You could try getting to know people. The only people you talk to are me, Steph, and Reynold. Maybe if you tried with some of them, they wouldn't hate you so much," he said motioning towards the crowd before him. I could hear them all going about their business, talking, laughing, and arguing with one another.

"Gee thanks Gus, what a pep talk." It was my turn to roll my eyes. As he was about to talk I cut him off, "I just have to get through today." I was starting to repeat myself, and that last one came out with a slight slur at the end.

"They're not coming for you Ryann." He said it on a whisper to me and even though he didn't mean for it to hurt me, I flinched back. I had, on one particularly hard night, divulged some facts about my past. I spilled about home, and about my friends. He never brought it up, never broke our unspoken agreement to forget I ever said it, until now.

"Sweetheart look at me," he said bending low over the bar and pretending to wipe some stain away. I obliged him, he was my only real friend here and I owed it to him to at least let him talk.

"They will never find this place. Even if they did it would be a death sentence for them. Aurielle will take pleasure in taking them out, you know it too. By now, who knows what they think. You need to get your head out of your ass and figure something out. You either open up to what we are trying to do here or you get the hell out. And you do it soon." I was shocked at what he was saying. We always kept our conversations away from camp talk, away from anything that could get either of us in trouble. I knew he was here of his own free will, he chose to follow this path. Just as he knew, although no one else did, that I was forced here.

"I know Gus, I know. I just don't know what to do anymore. I feel like no matter what, I'm backing myself into a corner." Once I made a decision it could either save me or ruin me. If I sat blindly in the middle I could survive, for now.

"My advice, if you don't want to be here you shouldn't. I'm here for my own reasons and so are many of them. You are judging them as much as they are judging you. You get to know people and what's going on here and then decide. If you still want out, make it happen. It might not be pretty, and you might not make it, but you have to try if that's what you want. If they bring you to battle, and you turn on us, it hurts us all. I sure as hell don't want that. There are many others that feel the same way." He stared me down. Was he offering me help, or serving his own warning?

"Why are you nice to me, why have you always been helpful to me?" I asked, trying to focus on his face. He was so confusing sometimes, and through the haze of my alcohol I found him especially difficult to read tonight. He steadied himself on the bar, and took a visibly large breath in before talking.

"My wife was chipped. We had fallen on some hard times shortly after we were married, and she took it upon herself to steal some money from the council office she worked in. She deserved to be punished, she broke the law, but she didn't need to be chipped for it. Her Council was mad because she had stolen from them, and they gave her the maximum punishment. It killed her, being chipped, it was a slow decline but one that she never recovered from. She couldn't take it after a few years, and she killed herself. That should never have happened, it all could have been avoided.

"I think it's time for a change, and if you think that's bad, my story is not uncommon here. You survived five years out there, exiled, alone, and chipped but you survived. I have respect for what you did, I respect that you never gave up. I have no respect for the Councils." If he kept rubbing that spot any harder he was going to dig a hole through the wood, I covered his hand with my own, in a gesture of apology and a need to ease his pain.

"But do you agree with what is going on here Gus? I can't be the only person here who was blackmailed into helping. They want to wage war on people who are innocent. Not everyone is corrupt, most of the councils are upstanding members of the community, what about them?" I countered.

"I don't agree with forcing people, no, but the collateral damage is part of any war. I am willing to sacrifice it. It's my choice to be part of it, knowing what could happen, and I think everyone should make that decision on their own." He looked at me strangely, like he really wanted me to understand what he was saying. And I could understand where he was coming from, even respect it, except for one thing.

"That collateral damage could be my family Gus, I could never let that happen. I would kill everyone, even you, before I let them get hurt." My hands were shaking at the thought, I couldn't let that happen.

"Then it looks like you made your decision, so you best be making some moves to do what you need to do. Fast and careful now." He really looked at me now, knowingly. A small smile tipping his lips. He wanted me to figure that out, and it left me wondering if he was being forced to be here too.

"What about you? How could I leave you here and not get to share my nights with you anymore?" I smiled back at him, going for a joking tone. I didn't want to scare him away but I wanted to know if he would come with me, if I could count on him to help. I thought I saw his eyes flash for a second, but the look on his face was gone in an instant.

"Oh no, I'm in it for the long haul, for Renee. I know many here that share my feelings about why there are choosing to be here. We might not all agree with what Aurielle has planned, but we will stay. Some of us must stay and see this mission through, you get me Ryann? Perhaps, we just all believe in change. In changing the Councils, making the community better. And perhaps we would follow someone else, if she had the ability to do it a smarter way." He gave me one last look and then left to refill one of the beer kegs, leaving me weaving on my stool and unsure of where to go from here. I had a sinking feeling, it wasn't going to be good news for me.