The bell above the door in the Animal Clinic jingled as a woman entered. "One moment," Deaton's voice called out before exiting the back room and almost froze at the sight of the woman standing there. "Shaiya, you're not supposed to be here. You've been banished."

"She's been long dead," Shaiya laughed as she slid her coat off her shoulders and dropped it over the divider between him and her. "I don't think Talia has much say anymore to those who do not care to listen. Besides, I have a different Alpha to serve."

Deaton didn't like the fact she was there. Shaiya was as close to a Darach as one could become without actually crossing the line – despite how innocent she appeared. "What are you doing here? I will not ask again."

"I'm here, in this little Animal Clinic of yours, to give you a warning." She moved some of her curly hair over her shoulder and leaned forward, placing her hands on the divider. "Do you really think you can stop the Blood Moon?" Shaiya laughed at this. "Your boy-Alpha and his Pack don't know what they're getting themselves into. Stay out of this, Deaton if you want your Pack to survive." As she pulled her jacket off the divider, she added in, "I will not tell you this again."

"We will stop this. The Lamb will not be sacrificed." Deaton was firm with his words towards her. He would not let it happen.

Shaiya stopped at the door and looked back only long enough to say, "History will repeat itself. It always does."

Ty cautiously went downstairs in case his father happened to have it in for him that morning. Thankfully Damon was out but that didn't prevent him from running into Clara. "I'm going for a run. Later."

Clara side stepped to keep him from getting out the door. "Oh, really now? Does this run include going to track down a certain missing Wolf of ours?" She moved her head to follow Ty's when he averted his gaze. "Damon doesn't want us contacting her, at least not yet, and you know it. Now forget about this run of yours and help me in the kitchen. Shaiya will be here shortly."

Ty never liked Shaiya, she always gave him a really bad vibe. Yeah, he knew she was Damon's Emissary and whatnot, but that didn't stop him from not liking her. Anyone who was willingly on Damon's side had to be just as bad as him. "Why is she coming? Nothing special is happening."

"Haven't you learned by now not to question your Alpha?" Clara led him into the kitchen with a heavy sigh. "I will never understand the insolence of youth."

Ty had enough of being left in the dark. "I'm not questioning my Alpha, I'm questioning you. What's going on? The last time Shaiya made a special trip was when we were at war with the Bishop Pack. Are we at war or something?"

Clara pulled out some juice from the fridge and set it on the island between them. "The possibility of war always lingers in the air, Ty. It is always best to be prepared."

Their conversation was interrupted when a knock came from the front door. Clara went to answer it but Ty side stepped to block her path.

He had something he needed to say to her – to ask her. "Don't you care about anything, Clara? Your husband is dead, your Alpha killed your husband and almost killed your daughter. I'm stuck here because of some messed up chance he's my father, but you're able to get out. Don't you care or have you spent so much time with Damon that you've become just like him?"

Clara's face hardened as she stared Ty down. "There are many things you do not understand about this world, Ty. Only because of this will I excuse your tone with me, and I will not tell Damon about this conversation." When there was more knocking at the front door, she said in fake sweetness, "Now if you'll excuse me. I believe our guest is here."

Ty clenched his fists as Clara went to answer the door. He always knew that he was never to be in the loop – that Damon never wanted him to know the underbelly of Pack dealings but in this case he wanted to know. He wanted to know why Damon suddenly decided to pick up and move them, why Mae was suddenly allowed space, and why Shaiya was there. Clearly he wasn't going to get any answers from anyone in his Pack, so he just might have to look elsewhere.

While Clara was distracted with welcoming Shaiya, Ty went out the kitchen door to take a trip into town and see if he could find his answers there.

Ty was already gone when Clara and Shaiya entered the kitchen. To say Clara wasn't pleased by this would have been a great understatement. "That boy is going to get himself killed if he doesn't start listening."

Shaiya set her bag on the kitchen counter and went straight to the fridge for the bottle of wine there and plucked a couple of glasses out of the cupboard. "Damon won't harm a hair on his head if he wants this plan to go off without a hitch. The more pure the sacrifice the stronger the power. Damon already made the mistake of killing her father…"

Clara cut her off there. "Kyle was not her father. You should know that. After all, you were the one who revealed everything to us."

Shaiya poured the wine with a strong eye roll. "It doesn't matter, Clara. All that matters is what Mae feels. She needs to have strong connections with those around her to make a true sacrifice. No sacrifice is more true, more pure than sacrificing oneself for the people they love." She handed over a glass of wine for Clara. "The Lamb's sacrifice must come from a place of love – just as it was the first time. Let Ty run about, let him learn if he so wishes to, and let him try to stop it if that is his desire. Mae would never let him do anything for her if it meant him getting hurt. That in itself is powerful enough for the Lamb to become the Key under the Blood Moon."

Clara listened to everything Shaiya said and didn't argue with her further about it. After all, it did make complete sense if one stepped back and looked at all the information. "I'll let you be the one to tell Damon about your ideas for Ty." She raised her glass before taking a long drink.

Shaiya smirked when Clara said that. "Oh, I intend to." She could see that there was something lingering behind Clara's eyes and wanted to know the cause of such thoughts. "What is weighing upon you, Clara?"

Clara went to pour herself another glass of wine as she sat on a stool at the island. "Something Kyle said before he died. He questioned why the Nemeton gave Mae to us."

A hardened expression appeared on Shaiya's face when she heard this but it just as quickly faded away. "Because of Damon. He is the Alpha worthy of such a prize." Shaiya reached across the island and squeezed Clara's hand. "Mae couldn't be gifted to Damon himself because he is not capable of the love needed to make the sacrifice pure. You and Kyle were – up until my revelation, that is. Which is why it's so important that no more harm comes to those she loves. A fact I will most definitely bring up with Damon; more than once if need be. With the Blood Moon approaching no more can be risked."

Mae leaned back against the counter in Scott's kitchen as she thought about something. She was thinking about the conversation she had with Derek in the school's parking lot – when she asked him if she was Paige's reincarnation or something. He said that she was and she accepted it then but it wasn't sitting well with her now. If she was Paige's reincarnation then how did Paige die? She must have been young because Mae remembered Paige being in High School but nothing after that. But even if Paige was young when she died…when did she die? It certainly wasn't eighteen years ago, this much Mae could figure out.

Since Derek and the others headed out earlier that morning with the promise they'd be back, Scott was the only other one there. His mom came back briefly between shifts, pretty much just long enough to get filled in on what was going on, meet Mae, and leave again.

When Scott came into the kitchen, she asked him something right off. "Do you know anything about Paige?"

Scott wasn't sure who she was talking about exactly, other than that was who Mae was apparently was in a past life. "Details, no. Why? I thought Derek mentioned something about you remembering."

"I do, but…it doesn't make sense, Scott." Mae hopped onto the counter to seat and accepted the can of soda he offered her. "If I'm her next life or whatever then that means she died, but not only that; It means she died at least eighteen years ago."

Scott wasn't quite sure what she was saying and his face made that obvious.

Mae sighed, opened the soda, and took a sip before clarifying. "Eighteen years haven't passed since Derek knew Paige."

Now Scott was getting it. He sat down at the kitchen table and drank his soda in thought. "Okay…that's weird."

Mae waved her hand out in front of her with an emphatic, "Right?! It doesn't make any sense. The timing doesn't work. Which makes me wonder…If I'm not her reincarnation, then what the hell am I?"

Scott didn't have an answer for that but had a gut feeling that they'd need one and soon. He got up and went over to Mae to assure her of something. "We'll figure this out. Don't worry, we've got your back."

"I can't help but worry, Scott. Especially when the dreams I keep having feel more and more like memories every time I have them – and they're not good, Scott. They're terrifying. I need to know more about Paige – I need to know how she died." Mae looked at the clock before turning back to him. "When did Derek say he was coming back?"

"He didn't," Scott informed her. "He just said he'd be back sometime later." When Mae set down her soda and headed for the door he had a good idea of what she was intending to do. "Don't bother, Mae. Stiles put the Ash back up before he left."

Mae stopped just short of the door and grumbled a bit. "I'm really getting tired of being on house arrest."

"Don't think of it as house arrest. Think of it as…" he needed a moment to think of something and hesitantly suggested, "a vacation?"

Mae snorted at that. "Oh, yeah, sure. I'll think of it as a vacation – one that was forced upon me and gave me no choice of its destination." She returned to her seat on the counter with a heavy sigh. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I appreciate the way you're looking out for me, it's just…I hate not feeling in control. I don't ever remembering feeling this way before, not as me anyway. But I – I can't stop thinking that all this…weirdness started when the dreams did."

"When did the dreams start for you anyway?" Scott was curious about that.

"A few weeks ago." Mae didn't think anything of it but when she did, she realized she'd had them more often than that. "Actually…no. For the past few weeks I've had them every time I fell asleep but I have had them off and on the past couple years or so." She couldn't believe she didn't realize that until that moment.

"Your memory dreams started a couple years ago?" Scott instantly thought back to what happened a couple years prior. "We reactivated the Nemeton a couple of years ago."

Mae now gave Scott her undivided attention. "You did what to the what now?"

"The Nemeton is a beacon for supernatural creatures. It's also pretty powerful. We don't fully understand it yet, but we had to do a kind of sacrifice ritual to find our parents a couple of years ago and that reactivated the Nemeton's power." Scott had no clue if there was any connection but it was the first thing he thought of.

Once again Mae hopped off the counter but this time it was to retrieve the telephone. She handed it over to Scott saying with strong emphasis, "Call Stiles to take down the Ash. We are going to this Nemeton place now." What kind of answers she might find there, she had no clue, but it was a good a place as any to start.

End Chapter 6