Author's note: Many many thanks to all who have read and reviewed. I appreciate you sharing the journey and hope the ending does not disappoint

Dimitri stared at his unexpected guest. An odd thought struck him - was "guest" really the right word? Shouldn't he have been using the word, well, "family"?

"Well met, Dimitri," said the tall man.

"I would like to say the same," he replied slowly, warily. "Should I be saying the same, de la Cruz?"

Nicolas sighed. "Aleksandra is fine, if that's what you're asking."

Dimitri showed no outward signs of emotion but his relief was palpable to Nicolas. "I do not mean to be rude but then that means I now must ask what you are doing here?"

"I need to talk to you. It' important."

Dimitri nodded slowly. "I'm listening."

"Pequena."

"It wasn't me," Shura said automatically. No need to look up, no need to see who was there. Did it matter, no it did not, whoever it was would be disapproving and mildly or wildly, silently or loudly accusatory, never mind if she did or didn't do what they thought. It didn't matter.

She felt rather than saw the big figure drop down to her level presumably to look her in the eye but she wasn't giving whoever it was that satisfaction, kept her eyes out on the horizon. Better to look out at treetops and leaves than into an accusing face.

"What wasn't you?" The voice sounded puzzled - Manolito's she realized, relaxing a little. He had been less accusatory than most. No, to be fair, he had been one of the few who had actually been nice to her. Despite the fact that she had butted heads with his lifemate not too long ago back in her own home. She stole a glance at him, saw he had folded his huge frame into a crouch and was watching her expectantly. She frowned.

"Whatever it was that you were going to accuse me of," she said.

Manolito's dark brows lifted, bringing an almost comical look to his open, expressive face. "I was going to ask you a question, not make an accusation," he said simply.

Shura had the grace to feel a little foolish. She couldn't help it - everyone around here, everything around here had her on the defensive. "Ask," she said, as graciously as she could manage.

"I envy you her loyalty" Nicolas said quietly.

"You will have it soon enough, de la Cruz." Dimitri's voice was dry, matter-of-fact. "My sister has the bad habit of getting attached to those who stay around her even for a short time. People, animals…."

"Monsters?" Nicolas finished when Dimitri trailed off. He turned away. "I know what you think of me, Dimitri."

"Is that so?" the other man replied softly. "What do I think of you, Nicolas?"

Nicolas turned to meet his eyes. Dark-lashed, intensely blue. Unreadable. Like Shura's. "That I'm the Carpathian equivalent of a horse's ass," Nicolas replied candidly. "When it comes to your sister it seems I have made the wrong decision at every single turn."

"Does that include binding her to you?"

Nicolas fell silent.

"Manolito why don't you teach the humans to protect themselves? Why all this hushy hushy mysterious baloney regarding your family?"

The older man looked troubled. They had been discussing Shura's little trips to the town nearby and the buzz they had generated in the small human community. Unwanted buzz.

"They're smarter than you give them credit for, you know. They know. In case you don't realize it. They know who you are what you are what you can do and what dangers you pose. Right now they wrap it all up in superstition and label them old wives' tales. But they know."

"We've put a great deal of effort into keeping the truth of our existence a secret. We all decided it was for the best."

"You want them dependent on you is that it?"

"Of course not!"

"Then teach them to defend themselves! Then the superstitions will be replaced with truth and they will turn their energy and anger towards those who …. " her voice trailed off meaningfully "those who deserve it." She turned away then knowing she had said too much.

"Just how much trouble have they been giving you, Shura?" Manolito frowned.

"What does it matter?"

"It matters a great deal," said another voice. "Who has been giving you trouble?"

Shura's eyes rolled in reflex. She caught Nicolas's scent and suddenly she turned away, sick to her stomach. Manolito replied after a moment. "The people in the village," he said to his brother.

Nicolas frowned. "The people in the village? What were you doing with the people in the village, Shura? "

Again it was Manolito who had to answer. "She found a newborn. One of the local teenagers had been turned vampire."

"What? By whom? Does Zacarias know?"

"We're on it," Manolito reassured his brother.

"You won't find anything." Shura's voice was dry. "He came from out of town and there's no local trail. I looked."

"You shouldn't have!" Nicolas growled. "I willl not have you putting yourself in danger!"

"Oh and you think it would have been less dangerous for me, for everyone, to wait for nightfall so he could rise and infect others? Then there would have been ten or twenty problems, not just one."

Nicolas was not convinced. "What did you do?"

"I took care of it." Shura had to turn away again. By the gods but he reeked of the woman.

"The family didn't …. like….. the way it was handled," said Manolito.

"What's to like? I cut off his head and fried his heart and brains. Standard protocol, nothing more, nothing less."

"And you got caught?," asked Nicolas.

"Of course not!" she said indignantly. "But I'm the only new person around here so it didn't take long for them to put two and two together. I told you they weren't stupid."

"It got ugly when she went down to the village," Manolito explained.

"What were you doing in the village?, " Nicolas asked the girl through clenched teeth, trying to keep hold of his temper.

"Buying bread."

He blinked. "Bread? Why on earth were you buying bread?"

"I was hungry, why else?"

"But the pantry is stocked! I gave explicit orders …"

"Oh your pantry is stocked all right," Shura cut in. "With empty boxes and sacks of meal with roaches in them."

Nicolas turned to Manolito who only lifted his arms helplessly.

"Someone…" he swallowed to get his rage under control and then turned to Shura. She was watching him, an unfathomable expression in her eyes. All at once he realized what she must be thinking.

"By the gods - you can't possibly believe that I asked the servants to do that, Shura."

She said nothing but the look in her eyes gave him her answer. Manolito quietly withdrew, leaving them alone.

It was a moment before Nicolas got his emotions under enough control to be able to speak. "You believe I gave orders for you not to be fed," he said softly. It was a statement, not a question.

"I don't need to be fed. I can feed myself."

The realization that she doubted him was so painful that for a moment Nicolas could not breathe. "You believe I would do something like that to force you to take blood from me."

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

He knelt beside her, took her face in his hands. Shura wrenched her chin free. She couldn't stand it when he looked at her like that, so closely. Like he gave a shit. But he saw anyway.

Nicolas saw. He touched her mind and saw in her small face that not only had she been going hungry, she was also totally miserable. The sunshine and rainbows were gone and he truly mourned it. "Why didn't you say anything?" he said at last. Though she shouldn't have had to say anything. He should have known. Would have known if he had been paying more attention.

"I can take care of myself."

"That was never in any doubt," Nicolas replied. "But this is your home now. You shouldn't be going hungry in -"

"Your home," Shura broke in pointedly. "Not mine."

Nicolas had to look away. "This isn't the way I wanted things to be."

"Oh I know," she said lightly. "You don't like it that everyone here feels your being with me is the equivalent of a human shacking up with his mistress. Oh you're going to deny it?," she added when he opened his mouth to protest. "Really Nicolas?"

"This isn't the way I wanted it to be," Nicolas repeated softly. "I want you to feel at home here, I want this to be your home -"

"Do you know her scent is all over the place?" Shura blurted all at once. "Lara's scent. Do you know that the chamber where you wanted me to go to ground with you is steeped in her smell? This place that you want me to live in, to feel at home in, is full of her things. Of people linked to her. Of her presence. Of her scent. This whole place reeks of her. You reek of her."

Nicolas caught his breath in dismay. Instantly he willed his clothes away and new ones to replace them but Shura only made an impatient noise and turned away. The scent was on him, not just his clothes.

"Forgive me," he said, truly distressed now. He realized suddenly that Shura had been raised wolfen, and to all lupine - scent equaled territory. By the gods, no wonder she'd been avoiding him. Of course Lara's scent was all over him - he had been seeing her often of late, eager to see if a cure could be derived from the human medicines Shura had provided. No, that hadn't been the only reason - he had to admit he had also been using it as an excuse to check on her, to make sure Lara was all right. Lara had been fragile for much of the time that they had been together, what with her work with the extremophiles and his being unable to claim her fully. Shura, on the other hand, was such a resilient little soul, and he had made the mistake of assuming she would be able to handle the sealing of their bond and all the strange emotions and upheavals it brought with it with the same aplomb with which she had handled the other upheavals of her young life.

He had not realized that Lara physically leaving their home had not been enough to erase her presence. Wittingly or unwittingly Lara had left her mark on the place. On him. He knew Shura understood the circumstances very well, knew that she had nothing personal against Lara. But their bond was so different - his new young mate was actually capable of keeping things from him. He hadn't picked up or realized that moving her into territory that another female had marked could be so distressing to someone who had been raised in the manner of the wolf.

He was an ass.

"Forgive me."

"And what purpose would that serve?" the girl replied, not looking at him. "It won't change anything."

"Shura…"

"What do you want from me, Nicolas?"

"I want us to be together for real."

She turned to him at last. "Together for real?" her expression was truly bewildered. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm here, aren't I?"

"It's more than just being here. There's so much we need to work out, Shura."

"What's to work out? You and everyone here have made it really clear that I have no right to you. I get it and I know I have to live with it. I'm not stupid, Nicolas."

"No right to me?" Nicolas was incredulous. "You're my mate!"

She shook her head. "I have no clue what that means, other than the fact that a piece of me seems to be attached to you and when you're missing it goes missing, too. I know you don't want me here. Nobody does. I don't want me here. The only reason I haven't left is that I'm afraid it will do to you what Skyler's absence did to my brother. I couldn't live with that."

The straightforward admission was like a dagger sliding into Nicolas' heart. It became difficult to even speak. "Shura, I am a complete idiot for not figuring this out, but why did you not say anything?"

"Because I have no right to say anything!," was the candid reply. "I'm the usurper, remember? I have no right to complain that everything here has her mark - after all I just stole it from her, right? Like I stole you from her? So I have no right to tell you that the smell of her on you - even the sound of you speaking her name drives me insane. All right? Satisfied? I know I have no right to you! You've made that perfectly clear by wearing her scent on you every day since you supposedly claimed me." With that she slapped her palms onto her face to cover it and buried her face in her lap, humiliated at her own admission, mortified by her pathetic lack of control, her shame and guilt so great she shook with it.

Nicolas said no more, just slid long arms around her and drew her to him. Where she belonged. She tried to pull away but he wouldn't let her, kept her tight and trapped against his big warm chest, his face against her hair. Inhaling her scent, that smell of leaves and rain and sunshine - noone he had ever known had ever smelled of sunshine.

"I love you," he said softly, his lips moving against her temple. He felt her grow still for a moment but all at once she was trying to get free again. He loosened his grip enough so she could pull back and he could look down into her face, but not enough to let her out of the circle of his arms.

"Enough of the lip service, Nicolas," she said to him."For once have the guts to speak the truth, not what you think is the 'right"thing to say."

"I know you don't believe me," he put in. "Because I haven't done much to show you, have I? I rip you from your home, from everything you've known and bring you to this place where the memories are bad and you think everyone is hostile towards you."

"I think? So now I'm delusional?"

He shook his head, lifted his hand to push her hair back. "No. I thought everyone would make you feel welcome but that's not happening is it?" His fingers trailed down her cheek and Shura fought hard between wanting to evade his touch and wanting to lean into it. Evading won. For the moment.

"I never meant for you to be uncomfortable here, Shura, I swear it. My only thought was for your safety. Now I realize that not only are you not all that safe here, you are totally miserable. On top of that you think I hate being with you. You think I hate you."

"I don't think," she said, at last finding the strength to shove herself away from him. "I know."

"I know how sensitive you are to my emotions. But you're misinterpreting them, Shura."

"What's to misinterpret? Every time I'm near everything I feel from you is colored black with guilt and shame. You going to deny it?"

"None of that is directed at you."

"Oh so I'm not supposed to take it personally? Really?"

"I feel the same things from you, Shura."

Her mouth fell open in shock and it would have been comical had the situation not been so dire. "Me? What do you expect me to feel? The first time you recognized the bond you threw me into the ocean and accused me of plotting to break you and Lara up! Every time you leave you come back with her smell all over you. I'm the intruder and nothing I can say or do will change that. Given a choice you would have chosen her. You would still choose her."

Nicolas pressed his hand to her flushed cheek, now truly aware of what it was like to hurt on another's behalf. "I cannot deny that in the beginning it would have been as you say," he said softly, honestly. "But no longer, Shura. You are my mate."

He saw in her eyes that she didn't believe him. Oh how it stung to realize that his arms had no capacity to comfort his own mate, his words no power to reassure. But how much more painful for her? He had been trying to close the circle with Lara - and because he had done so he now knew that he no longer felt the way he did when they were bonded. Although he would always cherish his former mate his new sun was Shura, and, guilt or no guilt, his life now revolved around her. He understood now that, for all Shura's sensitivity to his emotions and thoughts, his behavior had bewildered and confused and hurt her. Despite the bond she had zero expectations of him and that realization was killing him.

"I understand that nothing I can say will reassure you," he said quietly. "And that pains me more than you will ever know. All I can do now is to stop talking and start trying to change things." He reached out and touched her hand, not trying to take it, just lightly caressing the backs of her fingers. Again she drew back, evading his touch. Nicolas sighed and looked her square in the eye. "Will you trust me, Shura? Will you come with me?"

"Where?," she asked, frowning.

He reached for her hand and this time would not let it go when she tugged. "Please will you trust me on this? Things need to change and we need to make an important first step. Please will you come with me?"

Shura sighed a weary sigh.

Some months later Shura thought back on that day on that hilltop in Brazil. A sad day it had been, of bitter truths and cold reality. Today she was sitting on a different rock on a different hilltop and the changed view seemed to reflect all that had changed in her life since then.

She scanned the darkening horizon with her far-seeing eyes. This view was not all unfamiliar to her - she had lived here intermittently with her brothers when she was very young. It wasn't home exactly, but it had been a good stopping-place. Truth was Shura had never thought of home in terms of physical location. Home to her had always simply been wherever her brothers were. She turned and smiled at the lean tall figure who ambled over and settled down beside her on the rock. He slipped a long arm around her and kissed the top of her head.

"So thoughtful, malinkaya. Should I be worried?"

"No," Shura replied and nestled against her brother Dimitri like a kitten. She sighed and realized that this was one thing that had not changed.

Home to her was still wherever her brothers were.

Nicolas leaned against the wall, waiting impatiently. At last the person he was waiting for stepped out of the revolving doors and walked up to him

"It's done?"

"It's done," confirmed the newcomer.

"How long before the medicines go into mass production?"

The young man smiled a little. "It's hardly mass production, Nicolas. There are too few Carpathians left to merit mass production. This is a small "special" order. That's why it was so expensive."

"The cost doesn't matter if it will immunize us against Xavier's extremophiles. How long?"

"A week. Maybe ten days."

Nicolas nodded in satisfaction. "Was -" he hesitated. "- she - there?"

"You mean Lara?" Again his companion's lips quirked. "You can say her name you know. Yes, she was there."

"Is she well?"

"She is well." His companion's light brown eyes bored into him. "You can go see her you know. There's no need for you to avoid her."

Nicolas sighed. "It's for the best for all involved."

The young man looked at him and lifted his hands briefly. "If you say so."

Shura looked up at her brother. "That was a quick trip. How's Jasmine doing?"

"She's fine."

"She's handling the baby better now?"

"Much better. He's a handful."

"Getting you to teach Jasmine how to handle a jaguar baby was one of Mary Anne's better ideas."

Dimitri smiled. "Yes, it was."

Shura glanced sideways at him. "Is she moving in any time soon?" she asked meaningfully.

It was a moment before her brother replied. "We're taking it slow." He glanced at her and mussed her hair. "As you already know."

Shura grinned at him. "I'm really happy for you."

"Yes, you've told me many times." He kissed her brow and drew her close against his side.

"You're not sure about this, are you?"

"No," he admitted softly. It had been strange to develop feelings for a female after having lived through the intensity of being bonded to another. Strange and a little frightening. In that way he had been able to empathize with Nicolas. "But is anybody really sure of anything?" He turned to his sister and asked pointedly."Are you sure of what you're doing?"

Shura's lips quirked. "No." She blew out a breath. "It feels right, though."

Dimitri nodded and then shrugged in his fatalistic way. "That's all we can ask for, isn't it?"

She nodded slowly and they grinned at each other. After all that had happened between them, they were delighted that it felt like old times.

That return to the way they had been before Shura's breaking of his lifebond had set off a fateful chain of events, was hard-won. Nicolas, realizing his folly at having brought her to live in Brazil where Lara's mark was fresh on everything, had brought her back to live with her brothers. He had talked to Dimitri even before he and Shura had had their confrontation – for he had realized that she was completely unprotected during daytime. Here she at least had the company of her other brother Stas, whose mixed blood also allowed him to walk in daylight. And here, without the strain of being in a place where she had almost died, of being among people who did not seem ready to welcome her, Shura had let her guards down. When they had first come back to Russia, she had thought Nicolas would leave her there by herself but, no, he was determined to make things between them work and had moved there to be with her. They had lived separately from, but close to, her brothers and things had taken a more natural course. Conscious of how badly he had initially handled their situation, Nicolas had at first been cautious and had kept a respectful distance until Shura, unable to bear his guilt, had sat him down and given him a talking to.

"Nicolas, enough. Stop tiptoeing around me."

Nicolas shook his head. "I don't know what to do to make up for what happened. I know you've been hurt."

She nodded. "Yes. But you were hurt too. And there's no changing that now." She blew out a breath. "I'm tired of fighting this lifemate thing. Artificial or not it's there and it doesn't seem to want to go away. I now believe that no patience will wear it out. There's no changing what happened. But I think I'm going to have to take my own advice and get over it." She fell silent then, at a loss for words.

"What are you saying?" he whispered when the silence had gone on too long.

Shura turned to him and spoke humbly. "I'm saying that if you'll have me, I'll try to be your lifemate for real."

"If I'll have you?" Nicolas' voice was incredulous. "Shura..."

"No more guilt, Nicolas. No more tiptoeing around me. I feel your terror of offending me every time the subject of Lara is broached. I don't hate her and I won't break apart if you say her name, you know. And please please no more apologies. I forgive you. But you'll have to forgive me, too."

"For what?'

"You know being with me is going to make your life hell don't you?"

This time Nicolas' voice shook audibly. "Your life's been hell, too. If only -"

Shura turned and shushed him before he could finish his sentence. "Stop apologizing," she said pressing gentle fingers to his face, his lips. " No more guilt, Nicolas."

He closed his eyes at her touch. "I just ..."

Suddenly, as if to silence him, she pressed her mouth lightly to his, a soft caress of lips. It was brief , very, very soft, more a touch than a kiss, but Nicolas froze, stunned as the simple gesture shook him to his soul. He felt her own surprise at what she had done. She pulled back but it was too late. Their bond had flared to raging life.

Things were not the same after that.

Stas came ambling up with Nicolas, stretching his long arms above his head. "What are you girls yapping about?"

"Not much," Shura replied. Nicolas came up behind her, his hand moving to the small of her back.

"Mission accomplished?" Dimitri asked the newcomers, with his usual economy of of words.

Nicolas nodded. "Stas handled it very well. All arrangements have been made and the medicines will be manufactured soon. And then maybe we'll be rid of the threat of the extremophiles." Almost unconsciously, he rubbed his cheek lightly against Shura's hair and she leaned into him in response.

"What a great evening," Stas said, taking in the crisp, cool air, the canopy of stars. "Let's run!" He glanced sideways at Shura, who looked at him out of the corner of her eye, suddenly alert.

Without warning, Stas took off at a dead run, his blast of speed an open challenge. With a happy yelp, Shura leapt off the rock and sprinted after him.

Dimitri and Nicolas exchanged amused glances and laughing, they took off after the two, their greater strength and speed allowing them to close in on the younger pair before they reached the edge of the precipice. Running up between them, Dimitri caught Stas and Shura by the shoulders and Shura grabbed Nicolas' hand just as they leapt together off the rocky overhang. Shifting in midair, they landed on furry paws and three wolves and a jaguar ran in synchrony off into the night.