A/N: Okay guys I know I normally do this at the bottom but couldn't help myself here. I know I have jumped around a bit so I'm going to catch you up. Bran and Alex are on their way for their meeting. POV changes will happen currently not chapters later (hopefully lol). There will be more of Bran's POV though he is difficult to get down on paper. There are some great ideas ahead and already have some of it down on paper and hope to have it posted soon. It is a big moment for Alex and the pack, so I do want to get it just right. Now that I have taken up so much of your time I hope this chapter tides you over for the next little while. Please let me know what you think. With the developments that are going on I'm not sure if I'm losing my lovely readers or drawing them in lol.

Alex's POV

There was a part of me that was excited for this trip the closer it came despite the underlining reason of the visit. It has been awhile since seeing the detective and he did bring fond memories, protective memories. Beyond that I was a fan of sports and there was a game going on over the weekend and had gotten tickets. Bran didn't know the first thing about sports and wasn't overly interested in it, but he wanted to go. He wanted to go for me, to watch me was more accurate, he enjoyed me enjoying my hobbies. It was a little odd but had to admit that I found myself doing the same with him at times. An hour out of the city my thumbs were tapping on the steering wheeling excitement and nerves that we were almost there.

"I'm glad to see you excited. You have been so tense and so anxious."

I smiled at the contentment on Bran's face.

"I think this might be good for me. The game will be awesome anyways. I know it's not your things and it will be loud. Anna told me that you guys had super sensitive ears and the game might..."

"I will be fine"

He interrupted me with an amused smile now.

"Ear plugs?"

I asked half playfully to finish my sentence to which he only laughed at. We lapsed back into silence for the rest of the drive myself starting to hum once in the city trying not to be so jumpy. Bran then began to give me directions and we soon enough we pulled into the drive way of the local alpha. It was polite protocol to announce your presence in their territory, a meet and greet over a meal. This was my first-time meeting anyone else beyond the pack and his family and was as nervous as could be. Technically Adam was an Alpha so that was sort of the same but was still family and that cancelled it out. This situation was different, much different and so here I sat in the driver's seat trying to gather my courage to get out of the car.

"Breath you will be fine. Just give them that smile of yours and they will love you."

My eyes lifted from the staring at the house to look at Bran who now stood beside me. He had opened my door for me and held out his hand croon softly to me with a gentle smile. There was so much confidence and assurance in his eyes that it settled in me enough to gather a deep breath with a nod and take his hand. Bran closed the car door behind us keeping my hand in his and starting his way towards the front of the house. Two men had already begun towards us their eyes on Bran both tense and seriousness, a woman stood in the doorway. The men greeted Bran somewhat formally though that was still strange for me, the whole chain of command thing. While he was himself though there was a bit of a tinge of something I had never felt from him before.

"This must be Alex. We have heard good things."

I raised my eye brows in surprise while Bran gave the man a cool look that was unknown to me.

"It's nice to meet you."

Both men kissed my hand and we made our way to the house once in the entry way I was introduced to the Alpha's wife. She was quiet only nodded at Bran's greeting but took me to the kitchen her husband's request. There she began to scurry about setting out food and drink declining my offer of help. After a short silence the woman began to open speaking softly with just small talk at first. How was the weather? How was Anna and Charles? It was good to see Bran better, there had been talk he may not been able to recover. Anna had explained that to me and it made my stomach flop each time I thought about it. It had been possible to have never meet Bran because he would have been put down.

"Are you alright?"

I shook my head a little and looked up at the concerned woman.

"Yes, sorry. That thought just..."

I couldn't finish, and she nodded her head sympathetically.

"It's alright we all worry about it. Even when we don't need to we worry. In time you will adjust."

"How do you know?"

She smiled brightly at me.

"Not just anyone can handle Bran. You must have a certain kind of ... strength to be with him. Someone like that won't crumble over a little worry."

Before the conversation could go on the men came into the room ready to eat. Bran stopped at my side resting his hand on my lower back in comfort before helping with bringing the food to the table. The woman caught the sign of affection and shared a knowing smile with me the action only proving what she had said. The lunch was good, the conversation was better, but I stayed quiet mostly. Choosing to speak only when it would have the most effect on the conversation, on the topic. We stayed at the table still talking, filling our glasses back up with lemonade not ready to disperse yet. The men kept talking a lot of stuff that went over me head and a lot of pack stuff that wasn't really me know how.

The local Alpha switched seats with his wife, so we could sit next to each other had have our own conversations. We talked as long as we dared before we two ladies went to work cleaning up. The guys help was declined telling them to stay where they were, but I refused to be brushed off this time though she tried. I started on the dishes, so she could put the food away where she liked in her house. We talked a little more as we worked, and we were just finishing when Bran came into the kitchen. There was a look on his face again I couldn't place this was weird for me. It was not quite a smile, but it was still clear on his face that he was pleased as to how this had gone on.

"I apologize to interrupt your conversation. We do have an appointment we cannot be late for."

Panic flooded me, my heart in my throat turning to look at the time.

"I lost track of time."

Now Bran smiled.

"It happens. Perhaps you should get dressed."

"Yes."

I turned back to the woman watching us.

"May I use your washroom?"

"Of course."

With a quick thank you I jogged out of the house to the car and grabbed my day bag and went back into the house. Bran directed me to the bathroom and gave me a smile before I locked the door behind me. It had been a long time since wearing the clothes that had been dug out of the packed up boxes stored away. Montana isn't exactly the best place for my summer clothes at least it hadn't yet. The bruises from my brother and father were gone and that made me feel a little better about the situation. I had tried them on back home to make sure they fit, and they did but part of me felt self conscious. Even knowing we had to go, and we were short on time it still took some time to get the courage to the clothes out of the bag and then to put them on.

The shirt fit well about the top and showed just enough to caught attention, then it flared out by the rib cage. It went mid drift just showing a bit of skin around the hip area where the jean short shorts hugged the hips half way up. The bottom of the jeans not quite reaching half way to the knees, bright blue in color with complemented the light multi colored shirt. Found myself shifting and fussing no longer used to the feel of the clothes but gave in just putting my hair up in a high pony tail like I always had and left the bathroom. Bran hadn't waited outside the room which allowed me one more chance to take a deep breath before following the voices. All of them stopped however at my entrance into the room taking in the drastic difference from a long sleeve shirt, long jeans, and hair down. It wasn't until Bran turned to look at me that my hand grasped the day bag trying to get a hold on my nerves. His eyes went over every inch of me in a way that made my heart race, the gleam in his eyes told me how much he approved of the outfit.

"We should go, we don't want to be late. Thank you for your hospitality."

We said our good-byes and agreed to come back tomorrow before our game to visit again. Bran politely declined staying here not wanting to make the man uncomfortable in his own home. The Alpha had given Bran direction to the police station in my absence, so he didn't need to be given directions. For the first few minutes neither of us said anything, I had no idea what to say. However, it was easy to fuss over my clothes trying to feel more comfortable in them. That only seemed to make it worse so with a frustrated huff gave up crossing my arms. It hadn't escaped my attention that Bran was growing more amused the longer it had gone on. Finally, the amused smirk on his face annoyed me enough to speak.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The smirk stuck though and eventually he spoke.

"It's unfortunate we didn't meet sooner, it a shame to have missed this. "

I shook my head giving him an unimpressed looked as he laughed at me both of us getting out of the car. There was still excitement to see Detective O'Neal but as usual the bad feeling starting. Fear and anxiety coming as the memories came back reminding me why we had to be here. Bran took my hand and gave me a nod while through our bond he sent through comfort. Then the familiar trickle came in and it settled in like a warm blanket around Bran's comfort. Chasing all the negative away, allowing for just calm, focus, relaxed, my normal self.

'Let's do this'

Bran shook his head hearing the Berserker to but agreed with him squeezed my hand. That was all I needed to get in there, speaking at the front desk was no problem, a bright smile on my face. We waited a few minutes before they took us back to the offices and set us in that waiting room. Bran was all business though he looked relaxed as he usually did in public, looking over each person and doorway around us. While I looked around too seeing how the place had changed, who was still here, who had retired. There were a few faces that were recognizable but were not on speaking terms or they were just busy. We weren't waiting very long before Detective O'Neal came to get us, calling my name half way across the room. Both of us smiles, I ran to meet him unable to hold my excitement and wrapped my arms around him.

"Hey kiddo."

He chuckled hugging me then padded my back.

"How are you?"

"I'm good"

I stepped away and looked up at him as he searched my face closely.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Detective O'Neal this is Bran. Bran this is Detective O'Neal."

By this point Bran had walked to us and waited for us to acknowledge him. The two men shook hands and had their own introductions between the two of them. Then as suspected the detective wanted to speak to me first without Bran for the moment. He offered Bran to sit and wait, that there was coffee, but Bran chose to go to the coffee shop I liked and was not too far away. With orders of what we would like from the shop Bran left kissing my cheek before he went. Detective O'Neal showed me to his new office he had upgraded at some point, at that comment he just laughed as we sat down.

"So I'm just gonna get down to it. We haven't been able to find your brother or your father. They haven't surfaced or gotten themselves rearrested."

I nodded.

"Okay, what does that mean?"

"Possibly left the country."

I nodded again nervously.

"Well in a perfect world that would be nice."

"In a perfect world they wouldn't be at all. They haven't tried to contact you? Seen them hanging around? Maybe feel like someone is watching you?"

"No. I mean I felt safe, really safe for the first time."

"You did an excellent job hiding yourself. It would be difficult for them to find you, I just want to make sure that they don't."

'It couldn't have been that good of a job found me.'

I chided myself upset still about it and my voice of reason answered back.

'They were a step behind you, you went back to face them. Don't ever forget that.'

"You quit smoking."

The detectives voices pulled me away from the comments in surprise.

"Yeah. I guess I have... not too sure when it happened. Bran has been good for me."

He nodded leaning back in his seat looking at me hard, if I was going to cave it would be now. Instead I just smiled and watched the detective's shoulders relax in relief. We talked for a while longer, less `stressful and intense topics and more pleasant cheerful ones. Catching up with each other on what -we had missed apart, keeping the werewolf thing a secret of course. That I don't think the detective could handle any better than knowing my brother and father found me. We part when Bran arrived with our coffees and the two men went to speak in the detective's office leaving me in the waiting room. Both men looked relaxed and calm throughout the conversation easing some of my worry. The few detectives that new me stopped now to say hello and how are you, their eyes were looking for signs of abuse too.

I let out a breath when they stood up to and neither of them were angry or in hand cuffs. The Berserker chuckled in the back of my mind seeming amused by the notion of it. We spoke for a few more minutes before promising to visit again whenever we were in town. Now we were going to our hotel room, to check in, settle in and whatever else Bran had planned for this trip. He gave me directions to the hotel casually not giving me any details on his time with the Detective. When we got to the hotel I couldn't help but gawk a little not expecting to be checking into one of the most expensive in the city. Again, Bran seemed casual about it, about the valet parking, and them even bringing your bags to your room with you. My uncertain confusion only brought out a playful scheming smile I only imagined coming from the Berserker.

The person behind the desk looked skeptic of the two of us as I must have, seeing our casual clothing. At the mention of the last name the man straightened and at pulling up our reservation he smiled tensely. He greeted us with a nervous edge in his voice as he had our keys ready and already summoning a near by co-worker to take care of our bags. The man made a point to mention the last name and the same reaction came over this man as well. Bran kept the smile as he allowed the man to show us to our room, most of his focus on me who was legging behind. Taken in by the elegance of the building and was gawking at everything that we pasted right up to the lights on the ceiling. The lobby was awesome, the restaurant off the right smelled amazing, and the room was unbelievable.