Jared's POV

I was glad that I hadn't let Kim come with me this time. I'm certain she would have vomited at the thought of something so horrible. My sweet, gentle Kim was never good at hearing about the unfair things that happen in the world, I'd had to ban her from watching the Animal Protection Society shows because they made her cry when pets were found in bad condition.

Gabby's comments to Emily last night, suddenly made a lot more sense. Gabby's behaviour in general made a lot more sense. None of us could know what it was like to lose your family like that, and then have what was left turn you away. I found thinking about her family disowning her difficult to imagine happening to myself, to hear that she had watched her biological father slaughter part of her family and then been abandoned... I didn't want to know what that was like.

Sam was quiet. Sitting beside Emily, holding her to him, as he thought about what we'd just heard. I knew he was now thinking about standing up to Stendahl. We all knew it was the right thing to do but we, or at the very least I, had been worried about it since we'd heard what he'd done to poor Gabby.

"What do you think they're doing in there?" Emily broke the silence and it took me a few seconds to register what she'd said.

Paul had followed Gabby to her room well over an hour ago and we hadn't heard anything since. I hadn't really bothered thinking about it, after what had just happened I was sure that whatever was happening was totally innocent. Despite his anger and often inappropriate comments, Paul wasn't unfeeling and I knew from the look on his face as he'd left that he was fully aware of exactly what we'd just heard.

"Nothing." Sam said simply, "Paul wouldn't do anything."

"It's hard to think she's been through all that." Emily mused.

I agreed with her. I knew she was angry, Kim had always said it was because she was hurt by someone close to her, but I had never thought that it got as bad as it did. The whole thing was torture. Physical and then emotional. To watch your loved ones die and not be able to do anything to help them. To then be chased away from the only support you had before having any chance to grieve.

My thoughts jumped to her comments about not telling us what Stendahl did to her sister and having to 'put her clothes back on'. Then to her cold comment last night to Emily about being skinned and bleeding to death in front of Sam. It was mind numbing in its horror.

"It explains a lot though." Sam seemed to only be half in the conversation, "Why she's so untrusting of us."

"I think it's just another way that Gabby is incredible. She's come out of that with anger and trust issues, but I'm surprised she isn't even more damaged."

"Maybe she is." Emily suggested, "Did you see how quickly she turned her only remaining family away?"

"I think that's the trust thing." I didn't really believe my own words. I'd seen the engagement ring that Randall had given Gabby. Paul had shown it to myself and Sam earlier this morning and I could barely believe that Randall had proposed.

"No, that's a Gob thing. Sorry, a Gabby thing." a thick Australian accent said from the kitchen window. I was surprised to see Randall standing there, flanked by three timid looking teenage boys. Randall followed my gaze and smiled, "We've never spent any real time with another pack before."

"What are you doing here?" Sam growled.

"Apart from demonstrating how ineffective your current patrolling party is? We're here to help, if you'll let us."

"How can you help?" I snapped. I found it strange that I accepted Gabby so easily and yet the presence of these guys had me itching to phase.

"We figured you'd probably need someone with knowledge of how Standahl's army works."

"We have Gabby for that." Sam spat.

"Gabby doesn't know how the army works. She knows Stendahl, definitely, but she never really fought the army." Randall sighed, "I won't lie to you. We want revenge and we can get that by helping you."

"Where's your Alpha?" Sam looked just as tense as I felt.

"If you are referring to Rhys then-" Randall was cut off by one of the younger boys.

"He's doing what he does best, running and hiding." I could hear the disdain in the young wolf's voice as he spoke about his Alpha and it made me wonder how Rhys ever retained control of his pack.

"You turned against your Alpha?" I thought Sam was doing well to remain as calm as he was, seeing how everything but calm was radiating from him.

"Rhys gave us an ultimatum. Fight with you guys or run and hide with him. We are not cowards and we are sick of living in the shadow of what Stendahl did to us. Please, let us help."

"You could use the numbers." Emily muttered and Sam sighed.

"Okay, but we'll need to confer with Gabby first." Sam said with a low sigh.

"Where is Gabby?" Randall asked.

"She's in her room." Emily smiled at the new comers, "Do you want to come inside?"

"Sure." Randall smiled back and turned to the front door. Sam made to open the door for them and led them in to the kitchen. Randall looked around the room, "Where's the angry guy?"

Sam's jaw clenched tightly and he seemed annoyed by everything Randall was saying.

"He's with Gabby."

"Oh." Randall sighed and I swear I saw a hurt look wash across his face. Not that it surprised me. If Kim was spending time with a guy that had just attacked me I wouldn't have been particularly impressed either.

"Why did you call her Gob before?" Emily asked, clearly sensing the awkward tension that was rising.

"Well, it's what we used to call her. She has never been Gabby to us. The pack called her Gob, her family had about four different names for her, none of them Gabby, and her human friends called her Ella." Randall smiled as Emily pulled out a chair for him.

"Why Gob?" she asked, gesturing one of the younger boys into another chair.

"It's her initials. Gabriella Orabelle Butler."

"Orabelle?" I had never heard that name before; it was a bad name in my opinion, it sounded like 'horrible'.

"Yeah, Gob hated her mum for choosing it. Gob said that it sounded like her mother thought she was horrible. Her mum said she chose it because she thought Gob was adorable." Randall laughed. I couldn't help smirking myself because I'd thought what Gabby had said.

"What were her parents like? We've only heard bits and pieces from Gabby." Emily sat back down next to Sam and watched the four strangers intently.

"Well... they were cool. Her mum was a sweet woman, you wouldn't believe how shocked everyone was when they found out about the whole Stendahl thing. Her dad... everyone knew he had anger issues but he had gotten so much better after Gob, sorry Gabby, was born. I used to wish he was my dad, he was so much more entertaining. I honestly thought it was a bad joke when I was told Freyja was in hospital."

"Who's Freyja?" I asked, slightly confused by the random appearance of the name.

"Freyja, as in Gabby's mum." Randall looked as confused as I had felt, "Has she not told you about that?"

"Oh, yes. She just called her parents mum and dad." Emily muttered and looked out the window.

There were a few moments of silence before Sam spoke again, "So... how are you... there's no nice way of putting this. How is it that you seem better adjusted than Gabby? She's so angry and untrusting, why are you not?"

Randall thought for a moment, "I'm three years older than Gabby. And I didn't experience quite what she did."

"You also had people to lean on while you grieved." I was surprised by Paul's appearance and he did not look happy to see Randall. It was far from surprising, seeing how he felt about Gabby.

It was a matter that was confusing everyone. Until a few months ago Imprinting had seemed so final, but the recent Rachel-Paul-Gabby drama was making everyone rethink their prior assumptions. Sam thought that it had a lot to do with Rachel deciding that she wanted out, he figured that Paul was doing what she wanted because she was his imprint; which made sense seeing how much it pained Paul to know that Rachel was leaving him. But it didn't explain why Paul had now latched on to Gabby. Some of the Pack were under the impression that Paul had somehow re-imprinted on Gabby now that his connection with Rachel was weakening but that didn't make sense to me.

I honestly believed that what Paul felt for Gabby was stronger than anything he'd ever felt for Rachel. Even at the most intense point in their relationship there had been a strange disconnect between them, like it was meant to be but only as a last resort. Kim was the one who noticed it first and once she'd talked to me about it I couldn't help but agree.

"Don't you dare." Randall growled and it sent a shiver down my spine. Any sort of threat against a pack member gave the same result, none of us could stand such a thing. I saw Sam tense a little and knew he had felt it too. Randall didn't seem to notice as he got to his feet and continued, "You have no idea what it was like, none! I love Gob and because I love her I did as she asked of me."

At the mention of that word my eyes flashed to Paul and I felt bad for him. I could see how the use of that word affected him, how it stabbed at him. I felt another shiver down my spine as I felt that the use of the L-word was a low blow, an intentional low blow. Paul was shaking slightly with annoyance at the comment, but his face portrayed that he was hurt more than annoyed. I wasn't sure whether it was the idea of Randall loving Gabby that hurt him or that Gabby may love Randall.

"You left her to suffer alone. If you really loved her you would have ignored that request." Paul spat through clenched teeth.

"I think we need to talk to Gabby about this, before anyone does something they'll later regret." Sam said firmly as he stood up and stepped between Randall and Paul.

"How will we know what is the go?" one of the young shifters asked as he got out of his seat and half hid behind Randall.

"Come back this evening. We'll tell you what the plan is then." Sam smiled half heartedly at Randall before gesturing for them to leave.

I was surprised, yet again, that they followed Sam's demands so quickly and precisely.