Author's Note: Thank you to Lonely Rider for submitting a review! I hope you enjoy this chapter along with more of our favourite characters! Also, I was trying for this to be up on Monday, but seeing as it is now Friday night, all I can say is that life got busy, but I am going to try to update at least one chapter a week!

Disclaimer: Everything you recognize is not mine, but Patricia Briggs'. Kira and Thurin are mine however! I am not making money off of this story.

Chapter Three

Kira quietly closed the door while keeping her eyes on Bran. Charles and Samuel had already taken their usual seats by the desk, but waited until she had taken the seat between the two of them to truly relax into the seats. Bran turned to face them.

"I was talking with Adam and Mercy yesterday." He began slowly, choosing his words carefully. "And they have agreed with me that you seem lost as an Alpha. All you know is what Charles and I taught you and what you have done at Beacon Peak. You never got the chance to explore yourself."

"What are you talking about? My pack is stable and happy." Kira said.

"You have been training and working since you were ten. Fourteen years without a break during crucial years of discovery. You need a vacation and time to discover yourself. Not Alpha Kira, but Kira as a woman." Bran said, sitting down in his chair behind the desk.

"So, what are you suggesting?" Kira asked after a few moments of silence.

Bran stared at her before leaning forward and putting his elbows on his desk. "I am saying that you need to go and spend time with a normal pack, not just yours and mine. You need to be mentored in how to manage the needs of the pack and your own needs, along with how to be eloquent and elegant when it comes down to the Alpha meetings. My thought is that you go and spend some time with Adam and Mercy and their pack and Thurin will handle the affairs of the Beacon Peak Pack for a few months."

At that last word, Kira cringed. "Months?" she asked.

"Months." Bran confirmed. "At least six, and if you can prove to me that you have learned something new by the time the annual Alpha meeting comes around, you will be allowed to return to your pack. Your pack is stable enough for you to take this time for you. I will be monitoring Thurin and your pack that you don't need to worry about them. But you are going to burn yourself out by this time next year if you don't go. To avoid you losing control, I feel like it is in your best interest to take this time to discover yourself and to not have to worry about your pack for a few months."

Kira closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Her wolf roared under her skin. How dare he say that she will break. How dare what she can and cannot do. But her human side reasoned that he had probably seen this situation before and that she needed to trust his judgement in this case as he is the Marrok. The two sides argued back and forth in her mind before she managed to calm down. "So, when do I leave for the Tri-Cities? And what about the visa that I need for staying in the States for that long?" she asked, looking down at her feet.

"In two days, with Samuel and Arianna. You will be staying with Warren, Adam's Third, and his mate Kyle at their house. Their entire pack has been briefed that you are coming and to not try to antagonize you. You may keep your things that you brought here, but I suspect that you will be asked to go shopping for a new wardrobe, so I am giving you access to one of the accounts I had set up for you for this purpose. You may contact Thurin for updates once a week and each day of the full moon cycle. And I filled out the paperwork for your visa and it has been approved and already put inside of your passport." Bran said, shifting paperwork on his desk before handing her a single piece of paper detailing all the rules around her banishment to Adam's pack. "You might see this as a punishment for the first few days, but I cannot afford to lose you. As an Alpha who I can trust with some challenging wolves, but more as a female wolf who can hold her own against the men and women who think they can challenge authority in the hopes of getting their own way. You are the hope for the future, one where dominance is obtained through spirit and mind, not simply whether you are male or female. I have hopes to bring you out to the public by the next Alpha meeting as a model female wolf who is a strong, independent woman but who also can embody grace and elegance."

"I am being sent away to a form of finishing school in other words." She said dead panned.

Bran sighed. "In a way, yes. You are a strong, independent wolf, but a woman who embodies grace and elegance? Not at all. You would much rather run in the woods then go shopping or even care about your appearance. Also, Thurin reported to me that you have been running twice a day on average over the past three months. You went from running four times a week to that in only two years, making me believe that there is something underneath that is making you afraid of losing control. You always used running as a release of tension or fear, so something is causing you to make you more stressed out making you run more often with less relief after the run." He explained. "I cannot have you stressed out all the time without being able to resolve it or find relief. I need you to go and figure out why you are stressed while finding out who you are."

Kira considered his words carefully. "So why did you need Charles and Samuel here to tell me that I am being sent to Adam's pack?" she asked slowly.

"Charles is the one who is going to be checking in on you with Anna to see your progress and to also take you through a few rituals like you did when you were younger. Samuel and Arianna have asked me to ask you to help Arianna with wolves in their wolf shape when you feel more relaxed. You are possibly one of the very few people who don't come out of the Change and immediately seek violence despite being an Alpha." Bran explained. "Also, if you tried to jump at me after I had told you that you are going into Adam's pack for a time, they could catch you before you had made it over the desk."

Kira smirked. "I still have that temptation, but I also know that even if I did try to jump you, I would end up more black and blue than I desire. Samuel, I will help you and Arianna to conquer her fear. Charles, you and Anna coming to visit me to go through the meditative rituals we had done when I was younger will be a nice change from learning how to dress and act like a lady." She said with a slight tone at the word 'lady'.

"Well, now that that has been sorted. Is there anything else you wish to discuss tonight?" Bran asked.

"Unless you still want to beat me black and blue, I would like to go and think about this." Kira said gently with a joking tone, hoping that she would be able to escape this room.

"Only if you return to your room and stay there until breakfast time." Bran specified with a slight push of Alpha power to ensure his words would be heard and obeyed.

Kira felt the power wash over her shoulders and hold her to Bran's words. She stood, nodded to the three Cornicks and left the room, walking quickly to her own room in the opposite end of the house of Bran's.

The mansion was set up almost as a maze with many hallways and a ton of rooms to host any number of people and werewolves. Her room were in the basement with a small window looking out into the woods behind the mansion. It was a medium sized room, fairly plain in creature comforts with just a bed and a small desk, but her quilts that she collected and made during her teenage years still laid on her bed. Her back pack sat on the end of her bed, placed there by Thurin. She closed the door quietly, unlaced her boots and toed out of them, before heading to her bed to sit down.

Her mind was racing. The wolf in her wanted to run, but felt trapped in the room by the words of the Marrok, Alpha of the Alphas, and it irked her to no end. She was a creature of movement, of never stopping, of moving forward. Why stay still? The human side of her said that she must think about it, to make sure her choices would not affect anyone negatively.

It was clear to her that Bran had considered every possibility before making the plans for her. It was also clear that he thought her to be unrefined and that she needed to be seen as some kind of porcelain doll that was also a leader of society. Not something that could lose control and would go terrorizing the world over. Her wolf grinned at the thought of terrorizing the world just to see them squirm. Okay, maybe she needed a vacation.

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Until Next Time,

SOPROL