It was scary, Sera thought, to suddenly, after so long being alone, be thrown in the middle of a big family again. She wished desperately for her own to have been this solid and complete, and to her mind before Blake came back they were, and though the Peltier clan were in some ways weird they were a perfect substitute.

A part of her couldn't wait to start a family all on their own, Dev, her and their cubs. That was assuming they had cubs, but Sera was convinced that Dev would be in no way prejudice if their children turned out to be Arcadian, he had too much love in him for that, he was too good natured for that. Then there was that other part in her that didn't want to move on yet, but stay suspended in this perfect time and besides she didn't think, no matter how accommodating the elder woman was, that Mama Lo would want Dev to leave and make his own family just yet. Then again they might just make their family but stay all the same, that's what Serre and his mate had done with their cubs and though it was crowded no one seemed to mind.

Sera was just contemplating the many different ways their lives together could go when a pair of steely arms locked around her. Sera paused in her wiping down of the bar and tilted her head back so her lips met Dev's, he looked sexily sleepy like he had just woken up, which he had. Sera stole a surreptitious glanced at the clock and bit back a smile, it was just past two o clock in the afternoon, it was a wonder he was up at all since she had kept him up most of last night.

"Woman, you have got to give up these early shifts!" He groused before easing in to a stool, Sera laughed and put an order through to the kitchen for one of the customers.

"I'm thinking about it, but if I was to hang with you all the time, I'd never see sunlight again," she teased and Dev grumbled something while slipping a pair of dark glasses over his eyes and crossing his arms. He sat so quietly and so still that most people would think he was asleep but Sera knew only to well that his senses were well aware and alert of any potential threat to him or her. No self-respecting were-hunter would ever be so careless as to fall asleep in such exposed territory, sanctuary rules or no sanctuary rules.

Sera finished wiping down and went to lean over the bar opposite him, she ducked her head slightly so she was in his line of sight behind the glasses, she saw the answering grin on his face.

"Baby, why don't you just go back to bed?" Sera said, stretching up to skim her lips over his tauntingly, she watch his purse reaching for a more satisfying kiss but she pulled away. For a whole year she hadn't shown the slightest bit of affection to anyone and before that there was no one in Dev's position she would ever want to lavish such time and love on, now that there was someone and some semblance of security was in her life once more she revelled in being able to do so. To be able to express herself in such a way was refreshing and new, she was slowly becoming who she once was, not that according to Mama Lo she had pulled off her façade at all well. Apparently her quiet little mouse routine was frequently dropped when she was too harassed and stressed to care. A part of Sera was glad to know her nature was so deeply ingrained in her she couldn't change even if she wanted to; it helped as well to know that Dev loved her no matter what she was.

"No, its ok, Bébé," Dev said, with a wide yawn and a pleasurable stretch, "I prefer to be with you."

A slight thrill went through her and she bent in to give him what he wanted, planting her lips firmly against his.

"Well, you might as well be useful," Sera said as Dev groaned, "I need you to change the barrel on the beer pumps, they're too heavy."

Dev gave her a sceptical look. "You're a were-hunter, nothing is too heavy for you."

"Perhaps, but I like seeing you getting all sweaty and irritated," Sera raised a mischievous eyebrow, "besides, what's a mate for if not grunt work?"

"I thought it was to show you the heights of pleasure with my fantastically huge -" Several young women at the bar raised their heads to look in Dev's direction and it was the first time Sera had seen him blush, she liked it very much. "Brain," he grunted and moved out of their line of sight.

Sera laughed and Dev swept a loving hand over her curls. "Well, you did say you would be my slave."

"You were distracting me at the time."

"Was I?" Sera said innocently, "I'm so forgetful."

Dev swept her up in his arms and pressed her close to his hard body. "I'll do anything you want of me, Chéri," he murmured in her ear, "as long as you always love me."

Sera almost sniffled, but then she always did when he said things so sweet and heart felt, she'd always known she was soft inside but he was really ruining her tough girl image. However she grinned like an idiot as she turned and rearranged the glasses, Dev disappeared out the back and Sera was still chuckling when the Sanctuary doors opened. The scent that hit her was familiar and putrid, raking up memories of torn and broken bodies. Sera's body became a living statue, the wind caused by the opening and closing of the bar's doors moved a single curl across her forehead and she slowly raised her eyes, clear blue shining with tears of pure rage, to the sight of Bowen and Lenipia.

Dev tucked his hands in his front pockets and stood just beyond the view of the bar, he watched Sera back stiffen as she turned to fully face the two bears who by scent were Katagaria. Alert and ready to react Dev observed the male step forward with his hands held out in a gesture of peace, but Sera raised the bottle of beer she held, Bowen barely ducked before she let it fly. Before Bowen could straighten Dev was at Sera's back trying to pull her body behind the protection of his, Sera snarled at him and turned the full force of her furious gaze on the pale blond man in front of her and the petite brunette who stood off to the side, shaken by the force of her cousin's temper.

"Sera, I -" Bowen began but Sera growled so loud that the bear choked on his words.

"Do you remember," Sera said in a low uneven voice, her breathing shaky with suppressed violence. "What I told you?"

"Sera, we-"

"Shut up!" She roared, and silence fell like a stone dropping in water, Dev had had the foresight and quick thinking to freeze the small crowd in the bar.

"I told you the night I left that you were never to follow me! You were never to come looking for me! You were never to find me! I told you I would make you so sorry, that I would hurt you in any way I could. And you know I can."

Bowen let out a defeated sigh and Lenipia stepped forward, she clutched at her mate's arm as if she were having trouble standing on her own.

"Listen to us, Sera, please!" Lenipia was in tears, her sobs racking her small frame, "we didn't come to cause you any harm! We came all the way from England to warn you! Hammett is in New Orleans, he's looking for you!"

Sera struggled to breathe for a second or two and then gave them a curt nod, whether it was a sign of thanks or that they were to be dismissed they didn't know and Dev wasn't sure either.

"And how did he know I was here?" Her tone was simply acidic and even Dev wanted to wince. Dev studied the suddenly shifty faces of the Weres and Dev went cold.

"You led him to her!" He accused, his lip curling in disgust.

"No!" Bowen cried, "no! We came to warn you. The tressa have been tracking you since Hammett healed from his wounds last year, we've been following them everywhere, tracking them, hoping to find you before them. Lenipia knew how good you were at hiding your scent and we thought that since you'd been spotted in bars and pubs that you'd continue the pattern and look for bar work. Sanctuary is legendary, we knew you'd be here."

"And now you've found me what do you intend to do?" Sera's rage was barely being leashed, it helped feeling Dev's firm body pressed close to hers, crowding her protectively. Bowen and Lenipia looked blank for a moment.

"Nothing," Lenipia said tentatively.

"Bullshit! You expect me to believe that you've found me simply to warn me that Hammett is looking for me. Once a traitor always a traitor, Bowen, I told you that!"

Sera felt Dev's hand on her shoulder, he was her anchor, while the world was disintegrating he was the one constant throughout. She couldn't fail him by falling apart.

"I have had to find a way to live with myself after that night, it plays in my head over and over again," Bowen cried, he looked nigh on tears. "I have no way to make it up to you, no way to tell you how sorry I am. I betrayed my father's Arcadian blood by siding with Blake, but I also betrayed my Katagaria mother by condoning the slaughter of the people she loved and considered family. I can not go back in time and change my actions without bringing the wrath of the fates down on me and those that are mine. But I swear to you, Sera, I have no honour to swear it on and no life that matters but I give you my sacred promise on the life of my mate, the only person I love that I have not come here to betray you."

Sera wanted to kill him and hurt him, she wanted to drag him from sanctuary and throw him in the gutter. She couldn't smell a lie but she was by no means taking his words for truth. Sera stayed silent.

"Where is this Hammett now?" Dev asked, his hand stayed firmly on Sera's shoulder restraining her as much as comforting her.

"We don't know, but we know that he is in New Orleans."

"And how did he know to come to New Orleans to find Sera? How did any of you know?"

Dev could not believe that these were Katagaria he saw before him. Never would he had believed that Katagaria could behave so dishonourably, so devious and cruel and underhanded. That was for humans. This time Lenipia spoke, leaving her mates side to take a step towards Sera who sneered at her, Lenipia closed her eyes as if in pain, once she opened them again her brown eyes reflected deep hurt and sorrow. Dev's heart did not melt at the sight of the woman's pain, as far as he was concerned it was only half the debt that was due in payment for Sera's pain.

"A week or so ago, our trail looking for Sera had gone cold in Holland, we couldn't find a trace of her anywhere. We were sitting around doing nothing, then suddenly a couple of sentinels flashed themselves wounded and unarmed in the centre of our tressa."

Dev almost winced this time, it could not have been pretty whatever happened to them. The tressa were trained to mutilate Arcadians, especially sentinels.

"They were about to be killed, purely for sport, but one of the tressa noticed a weapon buried deep in the sentinel's stomach. When he pulled it out we knew it was a Sai, Sera's signature weapon but also it had the symbol of Sera's family on the bottom of the handle. The tressa tortured the Arcadian into telling them where they had found it, they led us to New Orleans, and to you."

Lenipia finished her tale with a pleading look at Sera, who's face hardened more if anything, Dev exhaled slowly his hand creeping up to do a soothing massage on the nape of her neck.

"What -" Sera began but her voice trailed off, Sera looked away from her cousin her eyes scrutinising the wood on the bar top. Dev knew instinctively what Sera wanted and asked for her instead.

"What happened to the rest of Sera's siblings?"

Bowen and Lenipia looked nervous but Bowen bravely carried on with a deep breath.

"The Katagaria members were spared. At the time we believed they had truly sided with Blake, those who didn't were killed instantly. Your youngest brother Cardew played the charade very well, but all the time he was helping surviving Arcadians escape. He created an underground railway out of England, it wasn't really a railway of course but that's what they called it. They helped their Arcadian kin get to safety here in the united states. He sent them to a Arcadian run Limani called the Serengeti in Seattle I think."

Bowen said the word Seattle as if it were a completely alien dialect and Dev raised an eyebrow at him, Bowen looked uneasy. Sera couldn't breathe she was so happy, who would of thought Cardew could pull off something like this, he was so quiet, but then again he was very much like Aden that way, and Aden her Katagaria twin was one of the bravest men she knew. Or had known.

"Who didn't survive?" Sera muttered, still unable to comprehend that Hammett her insane brother was still tracking her after all this time and had almost found her. Sera raised her eyes to see Bowen and Lenipia exchange anxious looks. "Tell me!"

Bowen sighed and began to run off a list of names that were meaningless to everyone else in the room but each tore at Sera's soul.

"Caja, Brae, Demelza, Ennor and Ebrel, Trystan, Zennor and Rosenwyn."

Sera choked and turned her face in to Dev's shoulder, she looked up at him with torn eyes and ragged innocence, it crippled him to the core to see her in so much pain.

Oh my God, Dev! Demelza was my cousin, she wasn't from mixed parentage like I was, she was wholly Arcadian, she didn't stand a chance. And Rosenwyn was just a baby, she could barely walk! Why would they slay a child? Why wasn't I there to protect them?

Dev had no wise, comforting words to give her only the strength of his arms to hold her steady.

Sera's legs almost gave out under her had Dev not been holding her up, her words in his mind were shattering him, he could barely keep his rage contained, he needed blood; for the first time in his life he wanted bear blood. Sera turned to face Bowen, he looked terribly sad and much older then she remembered.

"That's only the ones from your family, there were many, many more," Lenipia said, closing her eyes against a sudden onslaught of painful memories.

"But Trystan and Ebrel were Katagaria, why were they killed?"

Bowen looked ashamed and turned his eyes away, "because not all Katagaria are savage beasts that turn on their own family. Trystan went down fighting when he saw your parents murdered and you and Aden carried off into the battle. Ebrel died defending her twin Ennor, who was badly injured at the time."

Sera wasn't sure it was possible for her grief and sense of loss to intensify anymore but it did and it was now mixed with bitter heart breaking guilt that she was not there to defend her brothers and sisters. How was she supposed to live with herself after this? She simply hadn't thought, once she had left she assumed maybe the children were being brought up by one of the other families.

"I don't understand how this could happen! I killed Blake!"

"But Hammett survived and there to did Blake's reign of terror. I'm sorry to hurt you with this news, Sera, it was not your fault, you could not have foreseen what would have happened after you left. No Arcadian could have stayed and survived, not even you."

Bowen stepped back and wrapped his arms around his mate and allowed Sera some privacy to grieve.

It warmed Dev on some level beneath the worry and pain for Sera, that she immediately turned to him for comfort, that she did not push him away. They were a unit, a team, he would share her grief and she his, Dev dropped a kiss on her head and manoeuvred her on to a bar stool.

"Its ok, love," Dev whispered, knowing it wasn't, knowing it would never be, Sera shook her head, her dark curls tangling on the fibres of his T-shirt.

"I have to fight, Dev. By coming here, he has called me out, I have to no choice but to go. My honour dictates it."

Dev's throat tightened, he knew all about killing for duty and for honour, but never had he felt more humbled and in awe of another person.

"You do not fight alone, Mon amour, not any more."

Dev saw her eyes widen and the last thing he expected was for her to shake her head in denial, Dev just grinned down at her and nodded.

"Dev, no! Its -"

"My duty to fight for you and with you. Now you either fight with me or not at all. Which is it to be, petite femme?"

Dev watched with unconcealed joy as her tears dried leaving only righteous anger burning there. "Don't tell me what to do, or I'll geld you!"

Dev let out a laugh before catching her by her arms and pulling her to him for a scorching kiss. "We always fight together, Cher, you chose it to be so when we bonded, we live together, love together, lie together, fight together, die as one."

Sera cupped Dev's face, she knew he thought she was going to kiss him but she didn't, she simply stared and adored. This was it, this moment, this second, this piece of eternity, this slice of time it was immortalised in her heart and mind. It was the realisation that this was love they wrote about in books, this was what the movies made out love was, it was sacrifice and it was honour, pure and unselfish, it was all that the lies of Hollywood made out love to be. It was simply everything.

Having trouble breathing regularly, Sera looked away and cleared her throat, "Which weapon of choice then, mate?"

Dev laughed evilly, "I'm a bear, baby, what do you think? Claws!"

Sera gave a humourless chuckle, her laughter died to be replaced by a look of something far deeper and Dev for his eloquent speeches and glib smooth talk was at a loss for what to say, why was it only in the middle of danger did people realise just how deep and overwhelming love could be? Sera was a terrific fighter, yet she seemed to think she was about to face her demise and with it his. Ever the optimist Dev's consolation through it all was that they had bonded, they would meet again in the after life, even the fates could not separate them and should one be born again so would the other so they may find each other one more. Make no mistake he would find her.

"A warriors luck to you then, Strati," Sera whispered, her eyes never leaving Dev's, Dev inclined his head. "And you, little rose."

"Well, well, here you are little sister."