"Carson! Quick, Dev's hurt real bad. We were attacked by Arcadians!"

Carson nodded mutely still too flabbergasted to move, Sera let out a pure bear growl that made Carson's beautiful tanned skin of his native American heritage pale unnaturally.

"Carson, if you don't move your hawk ass right now he will die!" Sera shouted at the top of her lungs, fully aware she would attract the attention of the rest of the Weres housed at sanctuary, Dev's family among them. "I'm a were-hunter, Carson. I know what you all are."

Carson broke out of his daze immediately as though someone had flicked a switch on inside him, he called out for Remi and the rest of Dev's quad brothers. They rushed in and roughly shoved Sera back in effort to get to their brother, they helped Carson hoist Dev's huge bear body up on to the operating table.

Dev opened one bleary eyes and spoke telepathically to Remi, his eyes however unfocused, fixed on Sera's dainty, fearful face all the time. Dev's head fell back against the table with a loud bang that made everyone wince, then Remi turned to Sera, his eyes fiery with anger.

"He says you're his mate, and not to let you leave," Remi growled, Sera gulped but stood firm, Remi was one of the few here that truly made her wary. There were gasps from all in the room and all those outside it, Sera looked round and wanted to curse, the entire Peltier family and then some were standing in the doorway; with Nicolette Peltier at the very forefront of her family looking every bit the strong matriarch she was.

Cherif, Dev's other twin brother walked towards Sera and grabbed her hand, she didn't bother to avoid his touch, the more she complied the easier it would be to slip away sooner or later. Though looking at Dev, it was that last thing she wanted.

Cherif suddenly cursed and dropped her hand with her mating mark on it and backed away from her like she had the plague. Instinctively she knew what had set him off, she had forgotten in her fear and her rush to save Dev to cover scent and now the smell of Arcadian human was rife in the air that was usually overwhelmed by Katagaria scent. Sera took a deep breath and watched as the realisation dawned on them all that in front of them stood a female Arcadian sentinel bear.

Remi was the first to move, he reached for her roaring in anger, Sera twirled gracefully out of his reach, backing up into the corner of the office, giving him a bear like growl of her own that shocked all those within hearing. Before anyone could stop him Colt had pushed through the crowd and stood in front of Sera.

"Remi, for God sake! She's your brother's mate!" Colt snapped, glancing at Mama Lo for support, he met a hard stare. "Dev would not have told you to protect her if he did not trust her."

"He told me not to let her leave, not to protect her!" Remi growled, "Step aside, Colt!"

Colt stood firm and shook his head, the whole house seemed to hold its breath, everyone knew Remi was a hot head, he was potentially explosive in normal circumstances, this was like sitting on a ticking atom bomb.

"You would side with her?" Remi spat at Colt and again that terrible tension increased tenfold. All who knew Colt was an Arcadian understood the implications in Remi's statement. Sera suddenly had vivid flash backs of her village, of her family, of the wedge driven between them all. Colt stiffened and the snarl on his face was deadly and would scare many a strong man.

"Step aside, Colt and let him have me if he thinks he can take me!" Sera shot out from behind Colt's solid frame, trying to work her way round him in to Remi's sight but he refused to let her.

Aimee stepped forward and moved between her blood brother and her adopted one, holding up placating hands.

"Remi, Colt may be right. Dev may want Sera protected, she saved him from Arcadians."

Sera was immediately grateful for Aimee's presence and her fair and caring nature.

"She might have been the reason they were attacked! She may have set him up!" Remi snarled, "She lied to us! She's Arcadian, a sentinel to top it all! She could be spying on us for the Arcadian scum!"

A murmur of agreement went round the Weres in attendance and Sera felt anger burn through her.

"I have lived with you for nearly a month and I have done nothing to hurt you!" she shouted back at Remi, "I didn't lie I simply didn't tell you what I was."

That sounded lame even to her own ears but she'd be damned if she would stand there and not defend herself.

"In not telling us who you were you did as good as lie," that was Nicolette's voice this time and it made Sera's insides curl with shame, she had liked Nicolette and she had liked that Nicolette was fond of her.

"I had my reasons," Sera said firmly but yet somewhat respectfully, she met Lo's eyes as the bear swan moved to stand before her and Colt.

"Move, Colt," Nicolette ordered, Colt hesitated briefly. He would defy Remi and every other Were in the place but never Mama Lo. Colt moved away and so did Aimee, leaving Sera stripped of all allies. Sera held her head higher, her shoulders straighter and set her chin in an insubordinate yet proud manner.

"You could have endangered my family and all who call this place home," Nicolette said softly, Sera tilted her head and stared at the woman.

"How Lo?" Sera asked, equally as soft, "how could I? I was planning on leaving without a backward glance. And if I had you would have been none the wiser."

Sera could see Nicolette didn't like the truth of her words and she suspected what really stuck in her caw was that she had out smarted and duped them all.

"But you didn't leave!"

"I can't help who the fates mate me with. And I'll have you know I was leaving when Dev followed me and was attacked!"

"You deceived us all!"

"It wasn't out of malice, I have my reasons like I said. I can't help what I am and I'm not to blame for Dev being attacked and if I had the choice I wish I had never found out he was my mate if it caused him this much suffering."

Sera felt a burning in her eyes but she didn't dare cry, she was stronger then that, she was no little girl anymore. She had left her village that night with a new motto: little girls cry, big girls say fuck and kick your ass.

Nicolette knew Sera was telling the truth but the shock and anger at her son's wounds stopped her from being reasonable.

"My son lays there in pieces because of you!"

"I didn't ask him to follow me!"

Nicolette raised her hand and brought in down in a stinging slap across Sera's cheek, considering she was a fully fledged Katagaria bear, Lo could have done worse damage and normally Sera would have lifted her hand straight away to return the strike in kind. But she didn't. She didn't want Dev to wake and know she had slapped his mother, Sera turned her eyes on Nicolette, that had darkened to a deeper shade of blue.

"That's the only one your getting, Lo. You should have made it count," Sera said softly, ignoring the sting on her cheek. Nicolette raised her hand and brought it down once more only to have Sera's arm come up swift as lightening and block her, she did it several times before Nicolette let out a roar of impotent rage and stalked away from her.

Sera was breathing heavy and readying herself for more attacks when Nicolette turned her eyes on her son's, Dev's three identical twin brothers.

"Take her out back and make sure she doesn't leave. Everyone else out!"

The rest of the throng did as she decreed immediately until Sera was left staring at the wall of blond haired bears, she gave them a cocky smirk and her eyes looked like flint.

"See you later, boys," she said with a gruff laugh confident in her ability to escape, she even went as far as to let Quinn and Cherif shackle her arms with their huge hands she laughed mirthlessly at them again.

"And how is this going to stop me?"

Suddenly Remi flashed behind her and forced her head down, until her whole upper body was bent over and before she could stop him or flash out of there he had fitted something tight and uncomfortable over her neck. She instantly knew that it was a metriazo collar. It was a device designed specifically for were hunters of any type and it effectively stopped them from using any magic an could trap them in their alternate form. Not only was it extremely uncomfortable but highly dangerous, any use of magic or attempts to shift while the collar was on would cause it to tighten, it would continue to tighten with every use of magic until it eventually blew your head off. Literally. Sera should consider herself lucky that she was trapped in her base form but she didn't, she couldn't shift but neither could she use magic and that blew all easy chances of escaping.

They dragged her kicking and screaming to a room at the back of Carson's office, her language was the most vile and appalling she'd ever used, her mother's hair would have turned white and she would have died on the spot had she ever heard it and of course if she wasn't already dead. They stopped at the doors threshold and Sera looked in at a dark room with nothing in it, not even a mattress. Sera turned and curled her lip at the three bears.

"You really are pathetic!" She sneered her disgust and Quinn had the grace to look ashamed and Cherif a little sheepish. "You couldn't even take me in one to one combat or face my magic."

Sera knew there had been only one other time when she had been this angry, she touched the collar, still standing on the threshold of the room, the collar hummed under her touch.

"Anyway fuck all this magic!" She said, gripping the door frame on either side of her, "try and take down a real bear!"

Sera lifted herself and kicked out connecting with Remi's face, of course it didn't put him out of action but it was more then satisfying. Especially when she heard the bone crunch. All of them had a tussle but in the end she was thrown in the room and the door was locked, leaving her alone in the darkness.

Sera sat down and pulled her knees up to her chest wrapping her arms around them, she sighed gently and slowly to scared to swallow in case it caused the collar to tighten. She was back to feeling alone and lost and helpless again. It almost made her cry. Almost.

Sera learned quickly that being an escapist was not as easy as it looked, not that Sera had ever thought it looked easy … The room where she was kept was at the back of Carson's office and though she had tormented Carson non-stop for nearly nine hours straight he had still not opened the door, threatened to disembowel her but not opened the door. Sera had thought to irritate him until he flung open the door in a fit of temper ready to rip her throat out and she would rush him and make her escape. It happened once while Remi was guarding her, damn he was easy to make itch but as she made a run for it she had been caught by Serre in the hallway and dragged kicking and screaming once more into darkness. What was worse was as Serre tackled her, Sera had tried to use her powers without thinking and the collar tightened frighteningly. She had been forced to endure the darkness of the room, which was fine as her bear eyes were able to see just as well as if it were daylight, but the fetid stench of the past captives been held there overwhelmed her sensitive senses and made her gag. Which seemed to tighten and irritate that collar more.

She had pulled it, tugged it, shouted and screamed even attempted another go at magic and still the blasted thing would not break. Sera couldn't remember ever feeling so hopeless in her life and more then that, in a place she only acknowledged when the hours of solitude they enforced on her were unbearable Sera knew she missed Dev. No more craved him, longed for him, she wanted to feel his arms around her they way they had been that night, hear his beautiful accented voice in her mind. Sera estimated taking into account the time she had returned with Dev she had roughly been held prisoner in the dark room for about three days and if she was correct it would now be around perhaps Friday afternoon. Even when she was let out twice a day for her toilet breaks and brief usage of the sink to have a quick wash, Sera still could not accurately determine the time or day as Carson's office had no windows and she never noticed a clock around anywhere.

"How's Dev?" Sera had asked conversationally through the door knowing Carson was likely to be doing some kind of paper work at his desk, he had a rigid routine that Were. Sera had heard a pause and then visualised more then heard Carson's mouth and throat working convulsively as he decided whether or not to talk to her. Sera scratched her fingernail down the wood of the door she leaned her back on. "Please, Carson, tell me how my mate is."

Carson blew out an aggravated breath, "you know I can't, Sera. Remi has forbidden me to say anything."

"I never thought Remi would be the Were holding your chain .." Sera said in a musing kind of voice and went deliberately quiet letting her words seep into his mind and do there magic.

"He doesn't!" Carson hissed furiously, his pride stinging. "No Were does."

"Then stop obeying him like he does then. All I'm asking is whether he is breathing or not?"

"You know he is."

Sera stroked her forefinger over her mark and gave a small smile, if Dev had died her mark would have faded and so would her chances of ever having a home again, a family again and children. Not that she had ever thought of such a thing, only a few days ago, three or four if she'd counted correctly, Sera had been gung-ho for running out of New Orleans with her tail firmly between her legs until Dev could no longer find her.

"Please, Carson," Sera let her voice grow low and smooth, it was beautiful and compelling and completely heartbreaking in its sorrow, and Carson was not immune to its effect. She heard him take a deep breath and yield to her desires, suddenly a roar that Sera knew to be Remi made the whole of Carson's office shake and the futile light that had peeked from time to time under the door went out as Remi stood guard before it. That was the moment when Sera stopped speaking altogether and refusing meals, she vowed to win this one way or another.