Bran heard Jodie's truck pull up in front of the house from his study.

Something like unease stirred in him. "What do you plan to do about the girl?" Charles stood in the doorway, Samuel leaning on the wall by the window. Bran didn't answer at first, just stared at the unlit fireplace in thought. When he met the eyes of the young girl from Louisiana in the church today, an old magic settled in his bones. He would never understand how it happened, but his wolf had looked upon the girl and decided she was his mate.

Bran would never admit it out loud, but his control has been precariously slipping since Leah's death last year. His personal feelings for the woman aside, she had been his mate, and it was his bond with her that kept his beast caged. Her sudden death shook him with such ferocity that, had it not been for Charles's Anna, his sons feared that their father's end would come at last.

But today, for the first time since he lost Leah, he felt a calm he has not felt in what feels like forever. The bond was weak and meager, but there was no mistaking it. It reminded him of the abruptness of Charles and Annas' meeting, how Charles's wolf had chosen Anna within mere moments of meeting her. Only in this situation, he had not a fragile and abused Omega to coax into comfort, but a frail human who knew nothing of the world of werewolves and supernatural beings and resented her presence in his town.

"It won't be easy." He said at last. "She looked like a frightened rabbit."

"Jodie's kept her in the house since she arrived." Charles noted. "Other than her brief interactions with the New Orleans pack she has little experience with wolves. If she stays, it will be hard on her."

Bran makes an absent hm and leans back. Unfortunately for this poor girl, having her leave was not an option.

"She's here for six months. That should be plenty of time to court her properly." Samuel grinned. "The more you ease her into it the more likely she is to be comfortable with staying."

His sons were eager to see him whole again. For all their displeasures with him, they loved their father dearly, and they'd be damned to see him die. Not like this. It both amused Bran and filled him with a sense of pride to know his sons loved him so. He also thought they were foolish to fret over an old man.

"How about," Anna peeked over head over Charles's shoulder, smiling, "you grumpy old men come out and socialize. Maybe you should introduce yourself to the girl before you start plotting."

"Plotting." Very few in his family would ever be permitted to tease the Marrok like that, and Anna was one of those rare exceptions. Bran stood and smiled. "Don't you worry, Anna. Your coleslaw won't go to waste."

"You're making everyone nervous." She scolded lightly. "Stop being grumpy and come be with your pack." She kissed Charles on the cheek and whisked herself back out into the yard.

"That Omega of yours is something else, bossing around the Marrok." Samuel teased, brushing past his brother on his way out. Charles said nothing; he glanced at his father and nodded once, following them out. Bran looked once more at the unlit fireplace.

The girl was his mate. And whether either of them liked it or not, she was the only chance this pack had.


There were dozens of cars parked along the road outside the Marrok's house, a few people scattered here and there. "Only pack members and their immediate families usually come to these. Not everyone does, as we have about seventy wolves." Jodie explained along the drive. Morgan didn't respond; her fingers fiddled nervously the short ride.

Jodie let Morgan carry in the cookies she'd baked to ease her fidgeting and led her inside. Almost immediately they were greeted by a smiling woman with whiskey colored curls and freckles dusting her cheeks. "I'm Anna." She took the pan of cookies from Morgan before she even realized what was going on. "Everyone's out back. Too cramped in the house."

"Thank you, Anna." Jodie smiled at Anna - Morgan almost gaped, she'd never seen Jodie smile like that before - and ushered Morgan outside.

There weren't as many people as there were in the church, so Morgan didn't feel the crushing anxiety as intense. But then she spotted the young looking blond from the front pews, standing by one of several grills, and she felt her stomach hit the floor.

Several people glanced at her. Jodie nudged her.

Morgan took a deep breath, put on her mother's southern smile, and ignored the blond man. Jodie handed her a cup with punch in it and pushed her towards a set of card tables with folding chairs thrown haphazardly around them. "How about you sit and relax and chat with someone?" She said. Morgan turned to offer a small protest - she really would rather just follow Jodie around like a lost puppy - but Jodie was already halfway across the yard, sinking into a small gathering of men and women by the back door. They laughed and handed her a beer.

Morgan swallowed. 'And here I thought she was starting to seem decent.' Reluctantly, Morgan found the most isolated empty chair she could and tried to seem as casual and calm as she could.

Some eyes drifted towards her here and there, but thankfully, everyone seemed to ignore her. There was a crowd of six or seven children kicking around a battered soccer ball near the treeline. She briefly considered trying to play with them; she always felt comfortable doing sports (hence her mother insisting she do four). But she decided against it; it seemed like a cop-out, and someone was bound to be uncomfortable with basically a stranger playing with their kid.

Across from her at another table, a girl threw her hands up with a frustrated cry. "This is stupid!" She snapped at her books.

Morgan peered at the scattered papers on the table, frowning. "Are you doing homework at a barbecue - cookout - thing?" She called.

The girl, with unabashed bright purple hair of all things, looked up. "Barbecue - cookout - thing?" She had a smile on her face. She was definitely Morgan's age, at least a few years younger if she had homework. Or maybe in college. Morgan held her hands up defensively. "Hey, I'm not the one doing homework."

The girl laughed lightly. "Yeah, I'll give you that." She returned to her papers, but Morgan was determined to stimulate the conversation. "So what's the subject?"

The girl made a face. "Literature."

"What?" Morgan looked abashed. "And you're having a hard time? Pft," she stood, claiming the seat across from her new (hopeful) friend, "what's got you stuck?"

"I need to name all the Knights of the Round table, but there's an extra line and I can't find the answer in my book at all."

Morgan stifled a snort. "Out of all the lore to be stumped on, you lose it on King Arthur?"

"Well, you tell me who's missing then, if it's so easy." She shoved her paper towards Morgan.

Morgan skimmed the names and smiled. "You're missing King Arthur."

"But he's not a knight." The girl protested. "The Knights served him. How could he be his own knight?"

"Your questions calling for who was seated at the round table. Now, technically, this thing is missing a lot of names. There were over a hundred total," Morgan paused, as if searching for the right words, "at least according to the old stuff. But King Arthur always sat at the table. That's why it's such a big deal; the Knights sat equal with their king."

"Stupid trick question…" In loopy script, the girl wrote King Arthur on the last line. "Don't suppose you can help with the rest, miss…"

"Just Morgan. Morgan Evetts." Morgan introduced. "Gladly."

The girl beamed. "I'm Jesse Hauptman."

Morgan helped Jesse finish the rest of her assignment, pointing out hints in the text and outright explaining things that weren't in it at all. It didn't take long to finish with Morgan's help.

Jesse stretched her arms over her head. "Finally!" She yawned. "Freedom."

"I forgot how annoying homework was. Even the easy assignments." Morgan frowned.

Jesse snorted. "You're not that much older than me."

"You're what eighteen?" Morgan jerked a thumb at herself. "I turn twenty-one in December, you whippersnapper. You probably never even had to use a flip phone."

"That's only, like, two and a half years, at most." Jesse teased. "Don't act like you're all old and decrepit."

Before Morgan could come up with a response (she really liked this girl she was spunky) there was a cry from the children and the ball connected with the hand of tall, broad man with honestly beautiful features and an honestly frightening presence. Morgan didn't know what it was, but this man made her spine run with chills.

"Careful children." He teased; suddenly some of the noise dropped and half the crowd was staring and him. "You almost hit our guests. Would be a shame to harm such lovely little ladies."

There were mumbled apologies from the children. The man tossed the ball in his hand.

"Play nice, Asil." From across the yard, Morgan almost made the mistake of meeting the blond man's eyes again.

"Of course, of course."

For the life of her, Morgan would never understand what possessed her to stand and put herself directly in front of Asil. She plucked the ball from his hands with gentle fingers. "Thank you." She said tentatively, dropping the ball to the ground; then she popped it up with her toes and punted it towards the crude goal the children had made. It sailed through and bounced to a stop.

She grinned with all her teeth. "But the lovely little ladies would have been able to catch the ball on their own."

She didn't meet his eyes, just saw his smile as she turned and offered to play with the awed children. Jesse excitedly joined in, passing Asil with a smile and a nod. Conversations returned to normal; Asil turned and made his way towards the grills.


Bran watched Morgan and Adam's daughter Jesse play with the children. Asil plucked a hot dog from the grill and ate it hot. "I like her. She's got fire in her." He said, not looking at Bran deliberately. Mercy frowned, but kept her comment to herself. She sat next to Anna at the card table set next to the grills, the wolves clustered around them.

"You're going to introduce yourself to her, right?" Anna pressed, handing a plate of burgers to another pack member. Bran waved a casual hand. "Don't worry about it, Anna." He sounded relaxed. "I'll handle it."

"I don't doubt you will." Anna sounded suspicious, but she was smiling. "But if I leave the big bad scary Marrok to handle this all by himself he'll scare the poor girl." She said this to Charles and Samuel, who shrugged.

Bran watched Morgan let one of the kids steal the ball from her, making a show of being defeated. Another child called her out for faking and she laughed; he decided he liked the sound of her laughter, a reaction he wasn't quite expecting to have so suddenly. It almost threw him off; almost.

He glanced and saw that of the thirty or so members of the pack that were present, several were watching Morgan with cautious expressions. So far, the pack had mixed reactions to the unofficial news of the human being his 'mate'. Almost everybody knew already, and those who didn't would know before the day was up. Even a few of his Alphas from other packs knew, like Adam, who had returned to the Tri-Cities to handle trouble in his pack.

He'd left his wife Mercy and daughter Jesse here in Aspen Creek, in the safety of Bran's house, as a precaution due to the intimate nature of the trouble. He suspected that it was also because Mercy had somewhat of a balming presence on Bran when she was safe and near; not quite as calming as Anna, but it helped having Mercy's smart mouth just down the hall.

Bran cleared his throat, and all eyes that had been on Morgan averted themselves. He knew there would be difficulties amongst some members, although not as many difficulties as Adam had with bringing Mercy into his pack. He watched Morgan stretch a leg high and send the ball sailing over the children's heads into their goal. They were fascinated, practically screaming as they begged her to do it again. She obliged, which in turn led to one of the girls challenging Morgan to see who was more flexible by performing her best backbend. Morgan did a back tuck in response.

"Oh, you have your work cut out for with that one." Samuel teased.

Bran made a grumble of acknowledge.


Morgan made the mistake of revealing that she did gymnastics to the children and Jesse, and that prompted a string of showing off for them. She was thankful that she wore comfortable jeans and a loose blouse, because anything else would have been a chafing nightmare. She'd had hoped that her new friend Jesse would have been some sort savior against the monstrous children, but Jesse was just as bad the kids and prodded at her to do more.

She thought she was going to puke at the notion of doing gymnastics in front of werewolves. They were scrutinizing her; she didn't miss it. But she ignored them and performed for the children because one of the girls looked like her little sister. That didn't mean, of course, that she could do twenty back tucks one after the other.

She flopped on the ground after her fifth handspring, pretending to be exhausted. "No more, no more!" She touched her wrist to her forehead like a southern lady swooning on her porch. "I can't take any more! Spare me!"

"Boo!" Jesse teased. "She's a quitter! Get her!"

The children tackled Morgan, dog piling on her. It amused some of the wolves; from what Jodie had told her, most of the wolves just ignored children, but a few adored them. Morgan wondered – as she lifted a child with her legs and Jesse held her hands – if Bran Cornick was fond of children, or if he was watching her.

She paused. Why did wonder that?

"Kids, come eat!" She recognized the smiling brown haired man from the front pews. The kids cheered and abandoned Morgan and Jesse in the grass. Morgan helped Jesse up. "Want to eat or just watch everyone else eat?"

Jesse snorted. "Where are you from anyways? You're that guest I heard about." Someone handed them both paper plates and food began to appear on them. "I'm from Louisiana. My mom's marrying the New Orleans Alpha so I got sent here for a crash course in living with werewolves." She said it so plainly, but even saying it out loud didn't settle the unease that rose at the thought of Derek and her mother. She swallowed it. "What about you?"

"My dad's the Tri-Cities Alpha. Mercy, the lady over there," Jesse pointed to a woman with tanned skin and braids, someone Morgan had glimpsed at in the front pews at the church "is my step-mom. She grew up here, so we're family-visiting. I think."

"You ladies want burgers or hot dogs or bratwurst?" The smiling man with brown hair manning the grill was certainly handsome in his own way, even though Morgan kept her eyes glued to the grill. "Burger, please." She said, Jesse taking two hot dogs. She didn't realize putting a cheeseburger on a plate could look graceful, but the man somehow accomplished it. "I'm Samuel, by the way." He introduced, extending his hand towards Morgan; she carefully extended her own. His hand was calloused, but warm and soft and comforting; healing hands, she thought absently. "Hope the kids didn't give you too much trouble. They can be a little hectic."

"Morgan." She smiled. "They were fine. I have two siblings a lot younger than me, so I'm used to hectic."

"That's good." He grinned with all his teeth . He looked prepared to say more, but he just smiled and Jesse tugged her along. She spotted the blond young man again, watching Samuel carefully and yet seeming so relaxed.

Jesse sat them at a card table with Mercy and Anna; Morgan felt far more relaxed now that she had a friend, so sitting dab smack in the middle of the group next to Jesse didn't bother her.

(As much.)

"Morgan, this is my step-mom Mercedes, and this is Anna Cornick." Jesse introduced, taking on the role as middle man "And that's Charles Cornick," the serious looking Native American man stood behind Anna, merely nodding, "you've met Samuel Cornick and Asil," both men waved "that's Sage, she's really nice, I think you'll like he." The tall and slender woman in question wagged her fingers from beside Samuel, looking all the part of a supermodel with the glitter dusted across her cheeks; she looped arms with Asil and they drifted across the yard with heaps of food on their plates. "And that's the Marrok, Bran Cornick. He's not actually scary unless you try playing chess with him, then he gets downright dirty."

"You wound me, Jesse." Out of all the people Morgan expected to be the Marrok, the handsome blond who looked the same age as her was not who she expected. Her stomach crawled up her throat and dived back down into her gut like some sort of thrill seeker.

As if he enjoyed this reaction or he was oblivious to it, Bran snagged a folding chair from nearby and dragged it over to sit directly between Mercy and Morgan. Mercy gave him a strange look, but picked at her burger without a comment. Everything in Morgan screamed to scoot closer to Jesse, to give herself space; his shoulder was inches from hers. But Jodie had told her werewolves love to chase and she had a feeling scooting away would count as running. So while in her head she screamed, she put on a smile and tried to seem less terrified.

"It's nice to meet you all. I'm Morgana. You should probably just call me Morgan though. Morgana leaves a bad taste in some people's mouths when they think about it being the name of the evil sorceress from Camelot and all that." She was rambling. She did that when she was nervous, and Bran Cornick made her doubly nervous.

"I think it's a lovely name." Anna said with a smile, and Morgan's nerves unraveled a bit. Mercy picked back up on a conversation about the werewolf pack back in the Tri-Cities, and Morgan made herself content with listening. Jesse's banter with Mercy helped a lot with the nerves; it reminded Morgan of her mother and herself.

The thought of her mother made her hand pause over her plate. Diane had been excited to hear from Morgan earlier. It had only been a week, but Morgan already missed her mother and siblings dearly. She'd always been with her mom. Always.

Her father had completely cut all ties with Morgan and her mother when she was three. She and her mother lived alone for about two years before she married and nice man from Florida, the father of Morgan's little sister and brother. He'd done his best to be her father, and he'd honestly succeeded, but when Diane and divorced him four years ago, he too cut ties with Morgan, not even talking to her before he moved out, much less asking for any sort of parental rights over her. The pattern had given Morgan a fierce love for her mother.

One could say Morgan was a little clingy. She used to joke about the separation anxiety after going through some counseling. Morgan and her mother were two peas in a pod, best friends as well as parent and child. They'd been so happy, never had an argument in their life until Derek appeared.

Morgan pinched her burger bun. Derek left a bitter taste on her tongue. It wasn't that she just didn't like any boyfriend her mother had; this boyfriend swooped in and was trying to take her mother. Apparently, after somehow convincing Diane that his wolf had chosen her to be his mate, he'd informed her that Morgan wouldn't be allowed to live with them after she took the Change. And Diane had agreed. They haven't told Morgan yet, but one of Derek's female pack members whom Morgan was ninety percent sure was jealous of Diane had told her. So yeah, Morgan had issues with Derek.

It didn't help that something about him felt so wrong when he was around.

"Earth to Morgan." Jesse snapped her fingers in front of Morgan's face, making her jump in her seat. "Anna asked you about yourself."

Morgan's face turned bright red; they were all looking at her, even Bran. "Sorry, I was thinking." She said, wishing she could sink into the ground. "Um, what did you want to know?"

"Do you do sports?" Mercy inquired. "That was some impressive flexing with the kids."

"Yeah, I do four sports." Morgan's hands flitted nervously down her braid. "Gymnastics, volleyball, soccer, and I don't swim as intensely as I play the others, but I help the local teams train."

"That must be time consuming." Anna noted.

"Sort of. Gymnastics is the one with practice every other day, but the others only meet once a week. I still have time to go to night classes."

"What are you going to school for?" It was Bran who spoke, and his voice sent strange chills up her spine. "At the moment, just a General AA. I want to get a degree in Mythological studies. I heard Pacifica Grad has a great doctoral program, but California's far from home." absently, she stabbed at coleslaw on her plate.

"You want to major in mythology?" Mercy seemed intrigued. "Well, I wonder how all this business with Fae and Werewolves is going to affect that."

"Hopefully not too much." Morgan joked. "I'm less interested in stuff like Fae folklore and, uh, werewolf stuff, and more in the really ancient stuff, like stories about the massive ancient flood, or about old gods and how their people interacted with them."

"You seemed to know a lot about King Arthur stuff." Jesse said.

"King Arthur's less mythology, more history." Morgan kept her eyes on her plate. "I mean, the Fae are real and all, so some version of King Arthur must be real. I couldn't tell you which for the life of me, but it's either one of them or a little truth salted all over."

"To be honest," Mercy spoke like a wisened old woman, "with the Fae, it's best to not know."

Morgan nodded, and the subject drifted to Mercy's apparent 'shenanigans' with the Fae back home. Morgan paid attention this time, keeping up with the teasing.

Bran stretched his arms across the backs of Mercy and Morgans' chairs and made a joke about wrapping a Porsche around a tree, and Morgan found herself wondering why she wanted to lean back against his arm, when he made her so damn nervous.


The moment Jesse introduced him, Morgan smelled strongly of fear and the unease made him...was upset the word? Perhaps annoyed.

So he pulled up a chair and sat directly next to her. His sons masked their amusement, and Anna looked almost smug. Mercy didn't know what was going on yet, and would probably demand answers later. But he'd address it with her when she confronted him.

Under her fear, Morgan's scent was strange and intoxicating all in one. The smell of Louisiana swamps clung to her faintly, but it was the mixture of ashes and wine with a hint of wildflowers that struck so oddly with him. Humans always had a variety of their own scents, but he wasn't expecting such a strange concoction from her.

Then again, New Orleans, even it's very beginning, had always been a nest of the strangest scents.

He watched her without detracting any attention from Mercy. She seemed to be half listening, an absent look on her face as her thoughts drifted.

Bran found himself suddenly feeling bitter, which was odd, because it wasn't his emotion to feel. Bitterness sprung from someone new trying to forcibly cut apart his family...oh.

These were Morgana's emotions.

Bran's fingers drummed the table once. Mate bonds were something he knew very much about and yet something very little about at the same time. They were fickle. A bond fitted itself to suite the pair it connected. Some bonds allowed for very intimate sharing of thoughts and memories and sensations. But that was usually only between wolves. (Or a wolf and a coyote in Mercy's case.) Empathy was very rare; one the few he'd ever heard of was when Asil spoke of his deceased omega mate. Binds with humans usually were not as potent in terms of magical sharing, and although it was a singular emotion, Morgan's bitterness came through very strongly, setting in him like it was his emotion.

Anna asked Morgan about herself; Morgan was lost in thought, a distant look on her face. Jesse snapped her fingers, catching her attention. Morgan blushed; Bran found himself smiling in amusement. When she spoke of her sports activities and mentioned school, he asked about her major.

She wanted to study mythology, which was intriguing. Most children today dreamed of studying the stars and the life on the lands and seas, or taking up law or business. Mythology, especially in their world of wolves and Fae and vampires and demons, was a strange subject.

But she didn't really know that world. Yet. It was unfortunate how far she would be dragged into it.

He teased Mercy about his totaled Porsche and draped his arm across Morgan's chair before realizing it; a reflexive act, he supposed. He did that often when Mercy or Anna sat by him. She paused when he did, but didn't seemed bothered by the act and continued to eat. Good, he told himself. It was the first step towards her becoming comfortable with him. The quicker, the better.


When evening came and the pack began to return to their homes, several members remained to help clean up, as per their "turn". Jodie was one of those. While Jodie helped Samuel and Bran with the grills, Morgan had been assigned to collecting chairs with Jesse and helping Collin store them away. She didn't seem bother by the job, instead chatting amicably with Jesse and occasionally Collin, who seemed inclined to like her.

"Ok, what's the deal?" Mercy finally said, dropping the card table she'd been collapsing. "Something's up with the girl, and you're all leaving me out of this loop. Even Adam knows." She demanded answers. Samuel muttered under his breath, "uh-oh" and made a hasty (dramatic and teasing) retreat. Charles looked at his father before helping his mate tow dishes inside.

"I'll explain later tonight, Mercedes." Bran promised. She narrowed her eyes, but it seemed to satisfy her as she returned her attention to the table.

"Is there anything else you'd like me to help with?" Jodie asked him, brushing charcoal off her hands. Bran glanced over to the girls; they'd just finished all the chairs, and seemed to be teasing Collin about something. "No, thank you, Jodie. You can take Morgan home for the night." He said. "I will be stopping by in the next few days. I'll call ahead."

"Alright." Jodie didn't look all pleased at the prospect, but nodded and called Morgan over.

She waved goodbye to Jesse and Collin and jogged over. "Heading out?" She asked, smiling. Jodie nodded, and made for the door.

Morgan didn't follow immediately. She turned to Bran, smiling nervously with her eyes down. "I'd like to thank you. For inviting me." She said, voice gentle. "It was really...nice, to actually meet some folks."

"You're a guest," Bran said, "and you're welcome anytime to leisurely events with the pack. Feel free to come by while Jesse is in town. It'd be a shame you two didn't become good friends."

Her cheeks were flushed. "R-right. Thank you again, Bran." She fiddled with a silver ring on her pinkie. "Goodnight."

He took her hand and kissed her soft knuckles, smiling up at her. "Goodnight, Morgan."

She squeaked, scarlet, and all but ran to catch up with Jodie. Asil and Samuel laughed loudly in her wake.