I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the bathroom floor, tiles cracked under me from the heaviness of the fall, but more or less intact. There was a fucking awful pain in the back of my head, another in a shoulder and the broken door of the cabinet was now lying on its side beside me, so I could guess what I'd crashed into . Just finished the job. From the feeling of the hot tiles, the fire was really raging now, but something seemed odd.

Not the fire. The feet. Feet rushing around the bedroom and downstairs. Splashes of water. A loud 'hisss' of a fire extinguisher right underneath me in the garage. The bathroom door had fallen open again and I saw people, at least six of them, with a hose. Fire fighters? I might have thought so except that they weren't wearing anything protective, just wandering around with a hose, spraying water all over the place. They had long dark hair, tanned skin, and I recognised them as Native Americans. Indians? I wasn't sure what was politically correct any more. But that was who they were, it was impossible to ignore it and it confirmed that I'd officially lost my head.

Had someone built this place on a native burial ground or was I going stark raving mad? Did we even see ghosts? I caught sight of a sneaker, groggy, head lifting, and decided that it probably wasn't supernatural. Unexplained, sure, but not a bunch of helpful ghosts.

One of them caught sight of me and said something to one of the others trying to get the fire out. Woops. Was I supposed to be unconscious and not staring at them like a stunned chicken? I made my eyes flutter shut, but felt someone lifting me up and carrying me down the stairs. .They froze, as they passed a window, nearly dropping me, and I opened an eye a fraction and jumped badly as I found myself eye to eye with that same monster alien face at the window, hand against the glass, trying to get in.

A shout, I was dropped as the person carrying me freaked out a bit too, and I skidded to my feet and backed up, or tried to, but my injured foot was not really letting this happen. I slid backwards, as I was ignored now, the face the main focus of their interest now. They saw it too? That was a relief.

Something happened. The world shifted sideways, there was no other way to describe it, as I lay there perfectly still. An explosion rocked the garage. Nick's car? They vanished, every single one of the men and women, even the sneaker wearing one, the monster vanished, and I fell.

I woke when I hit the ground floor, pain exploding throughout my back, conciousness flooding back into me as the face followed. Body too. Just going through walls, through the hole in the bathroom floor, the fridge tipped over and floor hot under me. Flames had been licking at the ceiling in here, must have eaten through the floor, and I must have fallen further than I thought. I didn't know. It was confusing.

Well, I was hoping to redecorate. And I'd worried about too many toys. I groaned as I lay there, stunned, watching the fire eat away at my precious home, more upset about how it was destroying the next two week's worth of meals in the big chest freezer than about the bigger picture. But I was sure that whatever I'd seen had to be an illusion of some kind.

It took me a few seconds to remember what had happened before the fire. The twins. The intruders. Thieves. Looking for money and the babies. How had they known the triplets were outside? God, what about the triplets, were they here?

I got up, slowly, waiting to find a broken bone or something, but was relieved to find that there was nothing seriously wrong. Except for lungs burning, which was natural in this smoke, and probably a ton of bruising where I'd crashed through the floor, not to mention my cut foot which was now again extremely upset. The back of my head was a bit tender too. Nothing that was bad.

Fire. It made me slide up faster, cringing as my now unbound foot met the floor, swollen ankle not bound and unsupported now. What did I do? Did I get shit out of here? I had dropped my bag up there... I thought, till I saw it still over one arm. But did I get more? What was the advice in a fire? Get the fuck out?

I limped for the door, grabbing it, and ran head first into Reece, our foreheads clashing, and the world went black again.

"I can't look at her."

That was Reece. I groaned, shutting my eyes, trying to sit up as something pinned me down. The smell of smoke, flames, it was in my hair, skin, nostrils, in my lungs. Nothing else got in, besides the sounds of people moving around, water, splashing.

"Reece..." Jeremy's voice, a low warning. "Get the towel and bring it here."

How bad was it? I might have thought it was really bad if I hadn't seem him freak out over a few shards of glass. I didn't ask, I lay there, feeling totally fucked over, cold, and …the triplets.

I tried to sit up again, hands pinning me down again, long silky hair brushing against my hair as the hands forced me back. When I opened my eyes Elena was leaning over me, hands firmly against my shoulders, shaking her head when I tried to get up. I felt something happening with my foot and lifted my head to see Jeremy there trying to get my foot uncovered. Blood and ash had more or less coated the entire thing.

No wonder why Reece couldn't look. I shut my eyes and dropped my head back onto something soft. Something fabric-ish that may or may not have smelt like Reece.

"They took the twins."

"We'll deal with that in a second. Savannah and Adam are right behind them now." Elena said from above me. I felt something damp dripping and she released me to take a towel and stroked it across my face. "Just looking for more injuries. Stay still."

"Nothing else is hurt. Just my head." I cringed. "Did Reece knock me out?"

"Sorry." He called, sheepish, from closer now. I opened one eye to see him sitting there, trying to not see what Jeremy was doing with flesh, covered in soot and ash. "I went upstairs when you were out here."

"Upstairs? The hallway was on fire." The words burnt my throat, my mouth, smoke clouding everything.

"It was a little so I scaled the building just in case." Reece said it so casually that I rolled my eyes, aching head or not. Of course he did. Reece, ignoring his human body, scaled a two story building, climbing into a burning bedroom, looking for babies and finding nothing. He couldn't handle my blood but that kind of feat? He'd do it and pose after. I saw him lift a bag. "I got some of your clothing. And your wedding dress."

I slapped him hard, Jeremy cursing under his breath as he pressed too hard, and Reece fell back.

"Hold still." Jeremy ordered, hand closing down on the space above the swollen ankle.

"What was that for?"

"Going into a burning building and getting clothing. What the hell?"

He looked confused, glancing to Elena as if to get support, but she was giving him the same 'What is wrong with you?' expression I was. "Don't women really love their wedding dress? Anyway, the building isn't that bad."

God. I was going to hit him when Jeremy let me. It was a dress. I would have been more devastated if he'd gotten hurt. "No one hurt?"

"Besides you?" Jeremy shook his head. "No."

Except the twins were gone. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to stay still, trying to not panic, Elena's body not shifting as if she was expecting me to start panicking at any time. Maybe I was. The urge to change and race down the driveway after them was not going away. I had three legs and teeth so what else did a wolf need?

"If you need a sedative..." Elena said softly, as I twitched.

"My twins are gone. I need the whole damn box. Wait, what about the triplets?" My eyes flew open and the shove came just as I was tempted to fly up again. "Did you find them?"

"Car, asleep, just there." Elena's eyes went to the car parked nearby. We were a few hundred metres from the house, I realised, more or less concealed in the bush. The door was open and the three toddlers fast asleep under blankets on a back seat converted to a bed thing. "They found Nick's shed of abandoned toys and were asleep on one of their new beds."

The toys we'd run out of room for. We'd stuck their presents in there and the beds. Someone had, anyway, after we'd realised we weren't going to be able to swap rooms. At least the triplets had their stuff still.

"Smart kids." I muttered.

"We moved them just in case the fire spread. But it was already dying down. There was water everywhere." She added, softer. Elena glanced at her phone and frowned, stiffening. "Hold on. It's Clay."

"Clayton?"

"Reece, don't let her get up. No panicking! We've got it under control." She was already moving away, running away, as if she was determined to make sure I didn't hear a single word.

Reece shifted behind me reluctantly. Instead of pushing me down, he carefully lifted me up, slid behind me with his legs crossed, and I rested back against his lap, the 'pillow' now under my head. Great view of Jeremy's work as he was carefully cleaning the wounds out, but Reece was avoiding watching him. I lay there, wondering how far we were from the fire if it wasn't loud here, unable to smell much more than just faint traces of smoke now.

"I think they lured the triplets out." I said softly.

"Did you smell strangers in the hallway?" Jeremy asked softly. When I shook my head he shrugged lightly. "Maybe they saw them playing in the shed, or Reece moving away with a torch, or both. Or they used that spell on them."

"That spell?"

"You had a glamour spell on you."

I groaned. Suddenly the alien and Indians and ...it all made sense. Suddenly it made a lot of sense. This was like the damn birth thing. They showed me my worst fear and boom, there I was, totally distracted when there were more important things going on. Like fires and kidnapped twins. "I hate magic."

"We all do." Reece muttered from above me. "Glad you got out."

"Nearly." I reached up to touch where our faces had crashed into each other. There was a big tender spot on my forehead.

"Sorry." He grinned awkwardly, reaching down to touch the spot, a beautiful matching red spot on Reece's forehead.

I tried to not panic, ears strained for Elena, but could hear nothing. "What's going on, Jeremy? How do you have it under control?"

"Clayton flew back for the night. Savannah and Adam are behind them, he's waiting to ambush them, and you need to heal this foot to play your next part. They won't hurt the twins- they're only valuable alive, as harsh as that sounds." Jeremy squired more stuff inside a cut and I cringed as he made it open. "There's ash and rubble throughout them. Sorry. I'm cleaning them first."

"Just let them bleed a bit. It'll do it." I muttered. Much nicer than what he was trying to do. "Is the house lost?"

Jeremy glanced back up and shook his head. "No, just your room. Didn't you try and put it out?"

"I ...are you sure?" I remembered seeing flames everywhere. Was that another illusion? "I don't think I did. I can't remember."

"There was water all over the place and a hose inside the bedroom. We assumed you had."

I twitched. A hose inside the bedroom? I was really confused now. Had I gotten a hose and pretended I was watching myself … I didn't know anymore. At the hint of concern on Jeremy's face, as he caught my confusion, I tried to smile. "Guess we're moving bedrooms sooner than we planned. Where's Matt? Still at your house?"

"He came over?" He seemed surprised. As soon as fear flashed across my face, Jeremy put a calming hand on my leg.

"After dinner." I grimaced and Reece shoved me down when I tried to sit up. "Wandered off with a hiking bag full of snacks."

"Then he was probably there. The twins had put up a tent in their bedroom and we didn't want to wake them. Matt probably had crawled in." He patted my leg, relaxing, and so did I. Matt had just gone 'camping' with the twins.

My lips twitched at the news and I sighed, shutting my eyes, reaching up to hug Reece in the awkward position we were in. "Thanks for finding the toddlers."

"No problem." He leaned down to kiss my forehead, the side of it, his head going back to the house as something crashed. I turned to look too and saw the roof falling in onto the bedroom. Ah fuck.

"We'll make sure it's safe to go in before you move back in." Jeremy said softly. He leaned back for the kit and started to put plasters back on the foot as I waited patiently, or tried to, and then when it was wrapped up and he was satisfied it was waterproof, he made sure nothing else was wrong. The ankle was wrapped up too, an ice pack removed, and with nothing else going on, he finally let me get to my feet with help. "Keep that ice pack on your head."

"So how can I help find the twins?" I wanted to trace those thieves down. Stealing my children? I'd already torn one apart and the other three were just delaying what I'd do. Instead I stood there, legs shaking, finding myself holding an icepack when he shoved it into my hand and pushed it against my head.

"You don't. I know you probably want to rush off and force vengeance on them all but we caught them leaving the driveway and are on their heels." Jeremy's voice was calm, no hint of panic there. He didn't seem the least bit worried, I realised with surprise, like nothing about this was upsetting to him. Reece seemed calm too. And I believed him, somehow, when he said, "It's under control."

"Can I have them when you get them?" Even as I asked it, I scowled, that wasn't the same. While I had no desire to hunt humans for fun, I had every urge right now to hunt them for other reasons. But I wouldn't be kind, hunt or no hunt.

"That's up to Clayton. It's his job." He replied, a hint of amusement there, and squeezed my shoulder.

I let them lead me into the car and I slid down to lie beside the triplets on the flattened seats, Reece in the front seat and lowering it back a bit, as the fire engine finally came. The siren woke the triplets, not surprisingly, but they caught sight of me and didn't panic or get upset. We were hidden in the bush, the car off, and Jeremy moved to sit in the front seat. Panic kept me awake though. That these two weren't who they said they were, even though I knew that wasn't true, that the twins weren't coming back, all kinds of things, some totally illogical, some more so. The more magic screwed with us the less I felt like I knew what was reality and what wasn't.

Reality was those three babies though, I knew that much, because the second I was done they were snuggling up. I stank and the three of them changed their minds, sliding away sleepily, wrinkling their noses. I was there, that was enough, and they settled down again soon.

"Where's your phone, Reece?"

Jeremy handed me a phone, Reece glancing at the dancing flames with a grimace, and I sighed. This was why I didn't like keeping photos on a phone.

I shut my eyes, as I dialled in Nick's number, and still no answer.

After a while they got out again. I lay there, wide awake, panic and anxiety beating a horrible fast rytehm in my painful skull, and I doubted anything at this point could have really got my eyes to shut. In the darkness I watched Reece and Jeremy nap, so confidant that they did have it 'under control', watched the fire truck make sure everything was okay, and then leave. Presumably to Elena's property to tell her. Or maybe they didn't need to tell any of us. I'd seen they'd put tape around the building though.

It's under control. Under control. Under control. I repeated Jeremy's voice, his exact tone, his words, over and over in my head as I lay on the uncomfortable 'bed' in the car. I repeated them, to begin with, in order to not steal the keys, kick them all out, and chase down the thieves myself. This wasn't an unattractive fantasy at all. Mean, maybe, when Jeremy and Reece were physically weaker than me right now... but not unattractive.

Instead, I lay on my aching back, watching the stars outside, the soft breathing of the triplets right beside me. I repeated those words so many times that they stopped sounding like words. Then I tried other words. I didn't know what words to use. Sometimes I heard things outside in the forest, my heart thudding with panic, heard movements, was convinced I sometimes heard feet, or wings far too close to the car. At one point an owl came and sat on the dash and directly looked at me, its eyes in mine, eyes that in my panicked state felt more human than owlish.

Then it took off again with a hoot and I was left alone in the car.

I must have fallen asleep eventually though. When I woke, it was sudden abrupt, and it was not the soft voice of Jeremy or Reece, but the almost high pitched voice of Nick who was on top of me somehow and was shaking me.

"Who let her fall asleep? She has a concussion!" Nick's panicked voice shocked me out of sleep, as I was literally pushed onto my back, Nick shaking me as his scent crashed into the car. Shake, shake, shake, I was so annoyed at being woken when I'd fallen asleep peacefully, that I refused to open my eyes. No. Bugger off. I was asleep. This was really ru... ow. My head hit something hard, a seat belt, and I shoved at him.

"Stop shaking me."

"You're awake!." Nick collapsed on me, arms wrapping around me, one head carefully lifting mine up so he could get the metal out. "You scared me."

He was really scared, I realised with shock, his heart racing, fear in his scent and clouding it. I wrapped arms around him and gazed around. Still dark, still very dark, how long had I slept? It didn't feel like long at all.

"I was asleep, Nick, it's fine. You know, that natural thing that happens when you're got five babies under four, and no ones there to hel-"

Nick lifted my head and kissed me hard, desperate, lips claiming mine with that hunger and desperation and fear, completely ignoring my little dig at the pack. He leaned up, slowly, when I stopped trying to talk and grinned a shaky grin. "That help?"

"No."

"This?" He started to kiss my face, my neck, ignoring the smell of smoke. "Or this? Or this?"

"Nick..."

He kept going, ignoring me, curls tickling my face as he made sure I felt every last kiss, his weight carefully not entirely on me, and only when I relaxed did Nick relax, slowing, his head coming back up to check. "You okay now?"

I sighed. Shut my eyes. It was impossible to resist him. My body didn't relax, but I did, and I tried to convince it to do the same. No luck there. "When did you get here?"

"Just now. Clayton told me that the house was broken into and I came as fast as I could." He grinned, a tense smile that suggested he'd already been ready. "Stay calm. The twins are still being tracked."

"Tracked?" This seemed stranger by the second. Even Nick wasn't panicked. And what on earth had been with Savannah and Adam not being at the house when Elena had decided we needed at least one magic user at any time in the house for the time bein... "This was a trap, wasn't it?"

"They asked me first. I'm sorry."

"Nick, they're babies!" I growled, tried to sit up, and he pinned me down with all his weight. I could have easily flipped him off but I let him. "Who asked me? No one!"

"They asked me and I agreed because I didn't want him to come for you." He was back to kissing my neck and throat, nuzzling against me, arms tightening around me. "Everyone was ready. The twins are going to De- … Asshole senior. And we're tracking it. I wouldn't let my new puppies get harmed."

"Nick." I groaned, shut my eyes, the fear and anger at everyone there. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Liz, we're going to dangle your babies out the window until some treatment-hooked junkies come for their three hundred thousand dollar bounty. Okay? Just growl and pretend you're an angry wolf mother while they do exactly what we set them up to do." He nuzzled against me. "You're a terrible actress when it comes to your babies. Better to set you loose on them."

"Bloody hell, Nick." I groaned. "They set the house on fire."

"Just the bedroom. It's okay. That wasn't apart of our plan but... we're fine. You're fine. You hurting your foot wasn't apart of the plan either." He nipped at my neck gently and lifted his head up.

"Why didn't you at least answer your phone?" I thought you were mad at me... the words didn't come out, but they must have shown in my face, because he grimaced as his eyes saw my expression.

"I'm sorry. If talked to you then I'd tell you what was going on, I can't lie to you. Ever. I promised I wouldn't ever lie to you." He grimaced as he touched my head. "I nearly told you but Reece answered. Liz, I know it's hard for you, but I wouldn't have agreed if I didn't trust Clayton. You can trust him. They're his pack, those babies, and he doesn't let go of attacks on his pack that well."

"I do trust him." I muttered. "Don't know about the rest of you. That was pretty low."

"It's fine. The triplets surprised me though. Reece left the gate open by accident, didn't he?" When I nodded, he scowled, touching my red forehead. "I'll have to kick him."

"Might have been better … they were safely out of the way." I muttered. "How's your mum?" I half wondered if that was part of the plan too.

"Still in hospital. She's ..." His face darkened and he lay down beside me, between me and the triplets, his head vanishing against my hair. "She's going to be okay." But Nick didn't sound certain. He sounded afraid. Human illness wasn't something the pack was as used to dealing with.

My heart sank a little. Bugger. So that wasn't apart of their grand baiting plan. She'd really genuinely gotten sick. I did forgive him a little then for not telling me about the plan. "Hospitals are made for keeping people alive. Just give her some time. No one recovers from that fast."

He nodded and I gazed out the car window. Moisture was on the glass, I pushed it out of the way, and saw early morning light cutting through the darkness of the forest. There was another car nearby, probably where Jeremy was, Reece wandering around outside with Elena.

"Elena is on phone duty." Nick muttered beside me. "I made her promise that she'll keep me updated. Every second of it. She told me to drive you to Stonehaven but I got distracted when I saw you were asleep."

"We better go. Matt will be waking up." I muttered and he shook his head.

"You go to sleep a while longer while you can..."

Reece pulled the door open and ignored Nick's look of 'go away'.

"How's your foot?" Reece said softly, glancing at the triplets, not wanting to wake them.

"Coping. Why?"

"Can you change?" He asked softly. When I nodded, he bacl to Jeremy, who hung up his phone. "If you had to. Could you change? Can you walk?"

I nodded, glancing from him to Jeremy who was coming over, unsure of what the two were getting at. It was just reaching daylight now, the stars fading as the light blue started to spread across the sky from the east, and the triplets fast asleep in the car. I didn't know how they stayed so peaceful like that.

"I could change if I had to. I can walk, if I use my heel, it's really not so bad. Is that why you didn't put stitches in it?" I felt an understanding dawning then.

Jeremy nodded. "Elena's waiting at the house for us now." He moved closer, speaking softly. "She'll explain it further. We better get moving, Nick."

Nick sighed and nodded.

I glanced from them to Nick. "What about the triplets? No car seats."

"Sit in the back with them and I'll hurry." Nick leaned over to kiss me again, gently brushing hair out of my face, before crawling into the front seat. Nick lowered the window, cool morning air coming in. I lifted the triplets up, one by one putting them in the front seat for a second and tried to get the seat back into an upright position as they grumbled and wriggled around.

Once the back seat was up, Nick lifted them back, and he called to Reece that we were going. He nodded as he slid into the other car with Jeremy.

Nick did hurry. I sat in the middle of the three babies, bum aching like hell now, and he carried them one by one, till Jeremy turned up and helped, the sleepy grumpy three year olds just wanting to sleep and ignored our gentle encouragement of 'come on out'. I hobbled after the two men as they carried them upstairs in the newer half of Stonehaven and settled them on the bed in the room Jeremy led us into, the one we'd apparently get till we knew it was safe to go back, and they curled up and went right back to sleep.

Nick sat down in the small sofa chair in there and I flopped onto his lap, cringing, my body aching from head to bum. He nuzzled against my neck. "You good?"

"I want to go get them, not sit here and cuddle and remember how sore my bum is." I muttered. He laughed, I hit him for that, and stroked my back gently. "So where's our twins now?"

It was the first time I'd called them that. Our twins. No Demetruis involved. Nick's lips twitched up in a smile. "Probably giving them hell. I hope they remembered nappies."

He might have been trying to cheer me up but the idea that my babies were getting no nappy changes and cold milk made me stiffen and feel really fucking angry. "I hope for their sake, they know how care for a baby." Was it too sadistic to want to put them in a dirty nappy for a week? Maybe. It was an attractive thing to think about right now though.

"It's going to be fine. Promise." He stroked my stiff shoulders and arms. "Like you said. They're our babies. Clayton's been let loose at them."

I grumbled softly under my breath and tried to relax. Still no lucky there- my body was on 'fight mode' and would not change into anything else. He might have been able to relax, maybe, even see the funny side. Maybe I'd find it funny too in twenty years. After their first change was done and they were at college. Or something. "If you're wrong, I'm going to help the girls hide their dates from you and Clayton." I warned him, and he scowled at that. I could suddenly picture it- Nick and Clayton, as the girls were teenagers and their date coming to pick them up, suddenly appearing behind the poor human boy like two terrible ghosts.

"We're going to stalk them. We've already agreed." He nipped my shoulder gently. "Starting with Kate. This is pretty nasty." He fingered where the door had hit my shoulder hard, kissing the bruised skin, shaking his head. "Where else did you bruise yourself?"

"Hey, I was fighting to snap their necks. I got a bit hurt." I muttered. I wondered if I should tell him about the 'monster' or not. Probably not- it was probably apart of the spell I'd been under. It was a bit bizarre, how the mind saw one thing and the body did another. I stood up, crawling onto the bed beside the triplets, and Nick came over to peel clothing off me. His hiss, as he uncovered bits and pieces was more than enough description.

"You're a beautiful shade of blue and purple and red from head to bum, Aussie, I'm tempted to take photos."

"Please don't."

"Be right back." He left for a while and I lay there with my head on arms, until I felt something cold press against the back of my head. Nick stroked my spine slowly, carefully, some areas of it more tender than others. "Your head's a bit upset there."

"How can you tell?" I muttered. "The dried blood or the golf ball sized lump?" Truthfully, I didn't know if either was there, but ...I felt cranky. Really cranky.

"It's bleeding." He crawled into bed beside me, as best he could, the two of us trying to leave as much room for the toddlers as possible. We lay there on our stomachs, side by side, watching them asleep in front of us where the pillows had been shoved back, our legs dangling over the edge. I glanced back and saw what he meant. There was almost a criss cross of bruises, some tile shaped where my bum had hit tiles, some from the edge of the cabinet, a bunch of different ones. Nothing serious but it was pretty impressive looking.

I shut my eyes, curling up on my side so there was room.

"I'm going downstairs to watch Elena and spy for us." Nick pulled the edge of the blanket over me. "Any news, I'll come back."

"You better or no sex. ...well, you'd probably get sex, but ..." I wasn't sure how to hold sex back from him. It probably wasn't something that would happen.

"Something bad?"

I nodded and he laughed softly, kissing my lips as I fell asleep, before he went out and left me to sleep.

As tense as my body was, it was exhausted, and I did fall asleep. When I next woke, it was when I felt Nick re-enter the room, adrenaline rushing throughout my body all of a sudden, body returning to 'fight mode' the second it assumed it needed to. I yawned and rolled onto my back, gently tugging a little leg out of my way. "What is it? How long did I sleep?"

"Twenty minutes. There's a ..." Nick hesitated, then climbed onto the bed, climbing on top of me. "Elena's orders. She says stay calm."

Immediately I panicked. Those words? They were starting to come a little too much for my liking. "The twins? What happened?"

"That's still going according to plan. No. No..." He wrapped his arms around me, held on as I tried to get up, using his body weight to pin me down. "Lillian, I mean Mum, she's back in intensive care. A machine is breathing for her."

I froze as he lay there on top of me, breathing hard, one of his hands reaching out to stroke Susie's hair.

"For what?"

"Something about fluid or... I don't know, one of her lungs." He muttered against my shoulder. "I never really thought about how fragile old people were."

I sighed and wrapped my arms around him, snuggling against him, and he shut his eyes and buried his nose against my skin. "She's in a good place. They just shocked her body badly and it's trying to recover."

"Yeah. I didn't want to wake you but Elena said I had to. She wants you downstairs soon anyway." He muttered. Smiled weakly, or tried to, as he lifted his head. "Do you want a shower?"

I did. And he needed to shave. I nodded and we got up carefully, Nick putting a toddler gate on the door and dropping some toys in there- it sounded awful but we didn't want the triplets tripping down stairs, eating something bad in someone elses room or something else bad if they woke- and headed for the shower on that floor.

We showered together as fast as possible, which wasn't all that fast in the end, the two of us taking the chance while we had it. Nothing was a better stress reliever than sex, even if I could barely stand with one injured foot. Nick just lifted that one leg up, gently leaned me against the cool glass, and was careful to not be too rough with my backside all bruised. Once we'd gotten the 'stress relief' done, we really showered properly, Nick helping while I leaned against him and tried to keep my injured foot dry. Not much luck there. He waited while I shaved him and we were just about ready to find some more 'stress relief' right then and there... but the insistent knock on the door from one of the triplets made it clear we were out of time.

"Busted." I commented as he dressed, watching him, admiring every inch of him.

"How long we get this time? Five minutes?"

"Maybe seven." I laughed. "Ten if you count the shaving."

"Sounds like a record to me." He grinned weakly, a little less upset now, and peeled off the bandages off my foot. They were too soggy. "You did a good job with this, didn't you?"

"It just looks dramatic." I shrugged. "What am I wearing?"

All my clothing had been in the bedroom. Nick seemed to remember this too. He frowned. "I didn't think of that. You wait in the bedroom and I'll see if anything was left here."

Once he'd opened the door, the three toddlers wandered in, and Nick had to stop for a while and explain to them about Mama's owwie foot and how it needed very special care. Or something like that. I think it actually scared Lily- she refused to come near it like the other two. They followed him out, all except for Dominic who followed me as I eased myself slowly through the hallway in the towel, using my heel on my bad foot. He held my hand and waited, so adorable, even if he was trying to lead me in the wrong direction.

I sat and let them play with me till he somehow found some clothing. Reece had rescued some clothing, which was helpful, but it didn't make a full outfit. The rest had to be Elena's clothing... and it was a bit sad that they were Elena's early pregnancy clothes, her body was much taller and leaner than I was, but there wasn't much else to pick from right now. Once I was dressed we all headed downstairs, Nick leading the army, and me hobbling behind.

We ate. We sat. We waited, as the minutes stretched by, I watched them, the seconds slowing themselves down somehow. Elena filled me in, more or less, that Savannah and Adam were tracing them, that Clayton was waiting somewhere else to pounce. Or something like that. I knew deep down, that if she was risking my children, she had a concrete plan, that there was no way in hell she'd risk them otherwise. I just wished she'd let me go join him in the pouncing part. My body, my mind, it was all trying to get ready for a fight that felt like I wasn't apart of. This made no sense to my instincts- they were my puppies, it was my job to fight for them. It was taking every ounce of control over my instincts to not change and leave right then and there. Run at the twins. I didn't know where they were but that didn't affect my wolf mind in the slightest. Find trail. Follow trail. Hunt. Kill.

Instead, I was told to call the insurance company about the fire and break in, and deal with that. I scowled and did it very reluctantly. I knew that it had to be done without hesitation but ...come on. I knew she had a plan. I wished she'd stop this and just tell me about it.

"I will. In a few minutes." Elena said, when I told her this after the call. She smiled apologetically, her own movements tense and restless all morning, glancing at her own phone more than she needed to. She glanced up as Kate and Logan came downstairs.

"We had breakfast in the tent." Kate said, glancing at Logan, who nodded.

"He ate most of it. Can we have breakfast?"

"Where is he?" She replied as she gave them bowls.

"We're going swimming. He's meeting us there." Logan glanced back at Kate.

Something about this didn't seem right.

"Well, the pool's off limits. There was a fire last night." She shook her head. "Go get him first and bring him back. Then breakfast."

They shared glances again before heading out the door.

"Swimming in autumn?" I muttered. Okay, kids were pretty resilient, and it wasn't cold today, but... "Is it just me or did they look guilty?" Not that it mattered as much right now. I was frustrated that I was doing nothing.

Elena seemed to be thinking the same thing. She patted me on the shoulder and headed upstairs. "Let me check."

I slid up and looked for her phone, as Nick raised an eyebrow, but she'd taken it with her. Bugger. I sighed, pacing up and down the kitchen, and when she came down I was already wondering how I could track Adam and Savannah.

"Matt was never there." The words shocked me, but Elena was already heading outside after her kids, face drawn, clearly annoyed that they'd lied. "Give me a second and I'll find out why."

"Re-" Nick started. The look I shot him made him shut up fast. That word was being used far too much. But when he patted the couch beside him I flopped down, drew up my good leg, and snuggled against him. It was better than pacing up and down.

My eyes snapped back to the door as I heard Elena herding the twins back and she sighed when she caught my eyes. "Matt is in Savannah's car."

"What!"

"You two. Upstairs. You're not leaving the house for a month. Six months." Elena growled, and they headed up. "Forget breakfast. You're lucky if I let you eat dinner."

Elena called them up, cutting me off with a look before I could say anything, looking calm but ...I guessed she was furious. If she wasn't, she should be. Bloody hell. She paused, glanced at the phone, and shook her head. "I've left him a message. We can't do anything except wait till they retu-"

"Wait? Matt's in..." I snatched keys up, heading outside and using the heel on my bad foot for balance, Nick hurrying after me. I still couldn't drive, and this really had to change, but I at least had watched them enough. How hard could it be? That had more or less shattered my control, at least to some extent, and I wanted to go now.

It wasn't Nick who stopped me but Elena. She yanked me back. "Wait till they return. Matt's a smart kid, Clayton's going to notice, and we've got our own job to do. I suppose he overheard us."

Of course Matt was there. I wondered if he'd heard about the plan. It was possible- he spent half his time here at Stonehaven- and they often forgot how easily he overheard things. He'd wanted to get more involved the closer he got to his tenth birthday.

"Come back in the house." Elena added, quieter. "We're trusting you and Reece to defend the children here. And myself. Clayton's trusting you. That's not a small thing."

I hesitated. She was right, of course. This wasn't just about using us as bait- once they'd taken the bait- my babies, I suddenly had a different role to play here. Grieving mother, worried mother, and fucking dangerous wolf if they came for Elena while Clayton was doing his job. I sighed. Stopped making for the cars.

"Is there a possibility that they'll come here while Clayton's gone?" I asked quietly, glancing back, and she nodded. Of course there was. This wasn't just about my twins, I remembered, there was some kind of 'resistance' that wanted Elena's twins. If Demetruis was with them. I twitched though, my skin itched, my body screaming at me … but at the same time, this wasn't just Elena. And I knew that my instincts were as loyal to her as they were to the twins.

"Come in, heal that foot, and we talk about what we're going to do. Patiently. The last I heard, they had circled several times and are just a few hours over the state lines." Elena went quiet, let go of me, and waited.

I stood there a while. She made no move to force me inside, no words were spoke, but I felt suddenly that I was being tested. My control was being tested here.

I went back inside, Elena ahead of me, and sat down.

"It may be morning before they return. They won't be contacting us till then. We need to look cut off now." She joined me at the table. "You're doing well. Not panicking. You're getting good with that control."

I was right, I realised, this wasn't just about baiting the asshole. They were forcing me to work on my own self-control. I scowled but her praise deflected most of my anger at this. "You're testing me, aren't you?"

"You've had a bad history of control when it comes to situations like this. With your changes, with the need for the painkiller, so you have to let go and make your instincts refocus." Elena admitted softly. "We're trusting you to stay here, not go, and to do what needs to be done here instead. Trust the pack to do the other job."

I breathed out slowly, hands clawing at the tables lightly, Nick's scent increasing as he came to sit beside me. He put a hand on my knee and I wondered if he'd known about this. Maybe, maybe not, but it didn't really matter.

"So, they're not here till the morning?"

"We're going to be alone all night. You, me, the kids. There may be a blonde Australian wolf in the forest... but we're going to be alone." She confirmed. "And the person watching us from town will notice."

"The... there's someone watching us?" Showed how much I'd been paying attention. Elena nodded.

I understood as I heard Jeremy and Reece come in. Alone till morning? The two women and the children. In other words, this was round two of the 'baiting'. If they were just a few hours away then Clayton didn't need to wait. He was choosing to wait.

"Tonight, Jeremy and Nick are going into town. Shopping. They're going to find a reason to stay in town. I'd recommend pretending to be a bit too drunk to drive." She smiled somewhat, as Jeremy rolled his eyes, but nodded a fraction.

"We'll get the police to test us. They're usually prowling around on a Friday night." Jeremy
said softly. "Not too much- just enough to make it a bad idea."

"We won't be able to return till morning though." Nick protested, glancing from Jeremy to Elena.

"No." That was the point, in other words. Elena's eyes went to Reece. "You wait outside. Can you manage a night outside in the cold?"

He nodded, shrugged it off. "Changed, right?"

"I'll let you judge that. Sound carries better at night, you may get away with staying human, but it's your choice there." Elena turned her attention to me. "You, there's a spare pair of crutches, I want you to use them."

"I don't need to." I hated the idea.

"Yes, but use them. You're going into town to shop with Nick and Jeremy. No alcohol for you, just a lot of depending on those crutches, and getting the big strong men to lift things for you." Her lips twitched as I frowned. "Then take a taxi back."

"This is much harder than any hunt and kill." I muttered and Elena laughed softly. "You sure? Will you be okay here?" Silly question.

"Most likely. You're not far if I'm not." She didn't seem worried. "Paige and Lucas are coming over for the day. When this talk is done, I call them, they come here. Paige will pretend to leave but will hide."

Paige and Lucas? Now that I thought about it, I hadn't seem them today. Were they in town? Maybe they had been the ones watching out for people to watch us.

"Then tonight, we are home alone, and wait to see what we catch?" Reece asked and when Elena nodded, he grinned. "Sounds good to me."

"Are you able to do this?" Elena turned her attention to me now. "Keep in control like you have all day? You'll be struggling with that foot..."

"Not too badly. I can do this."

"Our children will be in the house. It'll need to be less brutal. We need it to stay as quiet as possible." She added, softer, glancing up. I heard the kids watching a TV somewhere. "They'll be sleeping in the same room- all five of them. Mine and yours."

"I can do it quietly. Staying in control." I repeated, Nick's hand tightening agianst my leg slightly. "I haven't run off and gone to maul the thieves all day. I've been in control."

"I noticed. Okay." Elena breathed out, a long deep sigh, standing up. "I'll call them. We'll get started after lunch."

Even with the 'plan' explained fully now, I was uneasy, really uneasy about this. I paced up and down as lunch warmed up. Someone, probably Reece and Jeremy, had actually gone into the kitchen and rescued every single container and element of food from my kitchen and fridge, like they couldn't bear loosing all that food. Or maybe they'd seen how I'd spent the last four days, every night and spare second, trying to store up food so that I went less mad when it came to feeding so many mouths. Either way, clearly, food wasn't wasted here. It was either eaten or frozen or put into compost for the vegetable garden I'd made for Jeremy's garden... which I needed to weed badly. Someone else was supposed to do it ...but they must have 'forgot'.

Nick just sat there, put plates out, or watched me pace. Limp, that was probably a better way to put it, as if somehow by doing this I'd make it heal faster. I only calmed down when Elena reminded me that the foot would heal faster if I wasn't constantly slowing the healing process and putting weight on it. I flopped down and he pulled my leg up across his lap, running his hands gently across the tense muscles under the pants, equally as tense as I was.

"You calm down or I'll chain myself to the house and refuse to leave." He said softly, trying to joke, but there was an element of seriousness there too. Nick was stressed out too. "I know you're able to do this."

I sighed, flopped my forehead carefully against his upper arm, and felt his body relax just a fraction. "Sorry. Pent up energy."

"Remember, use those crutches. Act disabled." Nick nudged me. "Limp, moan, don't pick up a thing unless it's lighter than a plate."

"I'll try."

We all ate lunch. Not just a regular 'large' werewolf lunch. We ate as much as we could, till we were bloated, putting as much extra energy into our bodies as we could. I snuggled the triplets, they were bored of the Wriggles for now, as Nick got some things ready to go out upstairs. Maybe they'd noticed how stressed I was, they hadn't been as clingy this morning, but the second I made eye contract they were all over me like little magnets. We were just waiting for Paige and Lucas to come now.

I kissed them goodbye when they came, the three of us slipping into the car with the crutches beside me before they got over the excitement about Lucas and Paige enough to get upset about us going. We headed off for town as Elena tried to herd everyone inside.

As we drove, I put my foot down and found a great way to be 'limp', seeing that there were several small stones that people had probably trampled into the car at some point. I slipped it between the bandages, more or less against a sore spot, which may have been a bit sadistic but... every time I put my foot down, suddenly I was disabled. No weight could go on that foot anymore.

I slid out of the car as we reached the mall and adjusted the crutches so they worked properly. They must have been used for someone a bit taller the last time. Nick waited patiently, lips twitching as I used the crutches, and I tried to hit him with one, nearly falling over as I lost balance, tried to put weight on other foot and... stone met cut and foot gave way.

Luckily, Jeremy was right there, and he shot Nick a look, his arms grabbing me before I went over completely. But hey. At least I was doing the 'injured and helpless' thing pretty well.

"I slipped a rock in the bandage." I said, softly, as Jeremy lifted me up, and it was his turn to look amused for a second, before he got control back.

"Stop harassing your wife, Nick, help her." He ordered Nick.

We shopped. Thanks to their rescue of all food objects in my house, that wasn't needed, but we did get other things. Spare clothing for the kids- the house was off limits. Not much, Jeremy reminded me that the twins had old clothing from when they were little, but Nick wanted to get them things anyway. Nappies for toddlers and babies alike. We had to stop quite a bit. Jeremy was known here, of course, and now that I'd been here a few years people knew my face too. Especially as I was seen half the time leading a small charge of triplets. People wanted to see how big they were, wanted to know how I'd hurt my ankle, the usually prying of a smaller town where most people knew most people and it was big news if a mother hurt her ankle. I had to reassure them that I was fine for food, I was fine for help, I was fine, fine, fine.

It was kind of amusing, actually, the dynamics between the pack and the town. Jeremy, Elena and Clayton were usually pretty much cold shouldering the people in town. They were known, they were liked more or less, but that was it. They'd made it clear that they didn't really talk much. All the people in this smaller town wanted to know was that they were good people, that their kids went to school, and they paid their taxes and committed no crimes. With nothing to suggest they weren't any of those things they were accepted.

Me, on the other hand, I stood out. I was an Australian with triplets and those two things sort of went against me a little. I struggled to do the 'cold and distant but polite' thing. People here still remembered my wedding, for crying out loud, and it'd been such a tiny thing! Not only that, but Australians were a little different with how they reacted to people coming up to them. At least my family had been. If they talked to you and asked about your life, you answered, then you listened as they told you about their life. When the news had broken that I'd had triplets, six months after they were born, people actually came by with food. Still called me the Australian bride. It was just lucky that I didn't live with Jeremy, or Clayton would be going off his head as all these people tramped up to his doorway with food. Nick just smiled, thanked everyone in his charming legs weak heart melting sort of way, and had sent them home.

This time, they spotted the new nappies, and suddenly the news was out. I had twins. Oh god, they'd be all over my house. When I reassured them everything was fine, it didn't work, the woman- who, I found out at the same time as she found out about the twins, worked part time in the hairdresser and part time in the supermarket, had three kids of her own and another on the way and her oldest was in Matt's class and was he interested in coming to her daughter's party?- had the news and I knew exactly what she was going to do with it.

Luckily Nick rescued me with the charming side of him, telling her that he was taking me to New York in a few with the babies for a few months to live with his mother, more or less accurate anyway because we wanted to be around when Lillian got out of that damn hospital and we had to tour a preschool, so any food wouldn't be used but thank you. I sighed with relief, he chuckled, hugged me closer, and reminded me to pay attention to New York.

Elena kept us updated as we went to get me some clothing. Nothing much happening there, except for the usual dramas that came with kids, and Jeremy confirmed by text that we were being followed. I hadn't noticed. I was too tense, struggling to keep balanced on those stupid wooden crutches, and getting crowded by humans who knew my face far too well by now.

They weren't so bad, really, but it was frustrating. I knew danger was right nearby, I knew we were being hunted, and it set my instincts right up to the edge of control all over again. It was taking everything in me to stay calm.

It was starting to get dark when we were done, the car loaded, and we stopped for the drink. This was the plan- we wanted to stay a bit later on Friday night, drink, eat, and relax. They drank, I ate, and the town came alive with people as they came out of work and relaxed as a new weekend came around. We skipped the idea of a movie- we didn't want to push time too much- but Jeremy and Nick did a great show of their own when they went up to the policeman, both of them a little unsteady looking, and he very happily tested them. In front of everyone. I suspected this wasn't technically how they were supposed to test someone- in public view as if it was a display- but it got attention all right. The policeman called me a taxi while they waited, pretending to be a little worse than they really were, and I gathered the bags on the curb beside me.

Nick kissed me goodbye, his hand suddenly iron around mine as the taxi driver loaded the bags, and I felt his hand shaking. Nothing to do with the alcohol. He wasn't keen on this part of the plan. "You going to be okay?" He asked softly, brushing the hair out of my face, and I nodded.

"You?"

He nodded, not at all bothered by the people watching us kiss, and helped me into the taxi when it was done. Nick watched us go, Jeremy moving to stand beside him, and I sighed. This was as much a test of his control as it was mine. I wasn't sure how he'd been before he'd met me, besides a reputation for a lot of women and sex, but somehow I tended to push his limits of self-control.

We drove quietly, I stared out the window, sliding the stone out and slipping it into my pocket. The driver tried to talk, muttering something about drunk husbands abandoning their wives for a boozy night out or something, and asked me if I knew about the church. I couldn't remember what I'd said, some vague polite thing,

I had half expected the taxi driver to turn into the bad guy, to be honest, but we got there safely, I paid him with his tip, and he put the bags on the porch and left again without any issue.

"Guess that was too obvious." I muttered softly. Elena came out with Paige and Lucas, Reece with them , who hugged me, said their goodbyes, and went off back to town. I had to assume that they'd drop Reece off somewhere on the way and he'd circle back and hide. We got the bags inside, or rather ,she did and I had to continue to use the crutches and nudge them in with one end.

"The kids are asleep upstairs in the same room. Kate and Logan know that something might happen and to stay hidden. Clayton's already taught them how to do that effectively." She said softly. "Reece is out now. We're on our own."

She left the bags beside the door, neither of us could be bothered, but I did change into the clothing that wasn't Elena's pregnancy stuff. It was better fitting and I knew I'd be more flexible in it.

Tension grew, and grew, as we sat there, watched a movie and tried to pretend as if nothing was going on. Elena got up and went around the house, turning lights off in all rooms except for the living room's floor lamp, and we retreated to the study as the movie continued to play in the background. She'd even put popcorn on and the smell was drifting out the house, into the darkness, a slight rain coming and going as the clouds moved across us. It was midnight when something finally happened.

Elena heard the car before I did. I saw her head lift, tilt slightly in a direction, and mimicked her to hear the sound of an engine somewhere. It was soft, some distance away still, but it had come into the driveway. Then it stopped. Two seconds, three seconds, no engine. It hadn't left again. It had stopped somewhere between the house and the driveway.

The rain came again, a little louder, a little more insistent, pounding against the roof and the cars. It covered the sounds of outside for a little while, a few long minutes where I was aware of my own blood pounding in my head, heart rate up, Elena flipping through pages but her eyes not focused on the book.

"It's time. Stay calm. Act weak for a little bit. I've got cash and we want them to really be relaxed before we strike." She said softly. "Paige is making sure everything's okay from upstairs."

I wasn't sure how Paige was doing that but I nodded anyway.

"Go into the kitchen and get a drink." She instructed. Not 'are you thirsty?' but an order.

"Lights on?"

Elena nodded and I got up, using the crutches again now, as Elena went into the living room and flopped down on the couch in front of the TV. The rain slowed again and I heard it. Feet on wet ground. I wasn't entirely sure how many- the softer ground made them easier to hide- but I had to guess at least three. Maybe more. This meant they'd left the car some distance away. If Reece was smart he'd do something about that car before he got here. I would have, anyway. If they were going to be that obliging for us then it was rude to not slash their tyres or some such polite host action.

I grabbed a glass and got a glass of the chocolate milk in the fridge, leaning on the crutches as I drank it, standing in full view of the windows. I remembered that once they'd shot at us, Aaron had, but this was a whole different battle. This wasn't a few cashed up and testosterone pumped werewolves trying to muscle their way around America, this was something else. Elena's head didn't go up as the feet came closer but I heard her heart, heard her controlled breathing, trying to control mine.

There was a knock on the door, before the handle turned and in strode Clayton and Nick. I jumped, not expecting to see them, but Elena smiled and stood up as if this was exactly. Nick was behaving a bit drunk, staggering a bit, Clayton's arm under him.

"Lost something?" He drawled, pushing Nick onto the couch, before wrapping his arms around Elena.

This might have made sense any other time. Clayton and Nick, watching out for eeach other, except that Clayton was supposed to be somewhere else right now. And Nick … he shot me a grin, a big sheepish grin, rubbing his head. But he wasn't supposed to be here either.

"Thought you were staying in town tonight?" I asked, softly, and he shrugged as he tried to stand and failed.

"Called Clayton. Didn't want you two home alone." He replied and flopped back, feet up on Elena's coffee table. "Got a drink?"

"What kind?" I headed for the fridge, using the crutches as much as was possible.

"Beer."

Yep. It was either Nick, who was really fucking drunk and had forgotten the plan, or it wasn't Nick and someone was trying to be Nick. I heard Clayton hiss something about how he was already drunk enough but Nick insisted he wanted beer. So I got a beer, 'crutched' my way slowly to him, and gave him the bottle.

"Got a opener?"

I made my way slowly back to the kitchen and got that. "Sorry, sweetheart. I keep forgetting that. Just was worried you drove him."

If Elena hadn't figured out something was weird about Nick, she would have now, I never called him sweetheart. I called him a lot of names when I was angry, names I didn't withhold from her ears, but that wasn't one of them.

"I drove us." Clayton replied. He leaned down to kiss Elena. I saw her hesitation, saw him notice, but she sniffed. "Ain't drunk anything."

"Just making sure. I hate beer." Another lie. Elena wasn't opposed to a beer when she was alone with us and safe. So she knew as well? I relaxed a little against the kitchen bench as we watched 'Nick' and 'Clayton' settle down in front of the TV.

I really fucking hated magic. But somehow I was learning to recognise it. Elena offered htem food and they seemed pretty happy with this idea.

"Where's the kids?" Clayton asked, feet up on his table like Nick, as Elena served them food. "Upstairs?"

"School camp." She lied so easily, so simply, so calm as she put the dip out. "Remember?"

He swore softly, shifting up higher. "Sorry. It slipped my mind. Where was that again?"

"I'll find out. The address is... hold on, let me check." Elena wandered into the study.

I heard feet outside, several pairs nearby, a few on the other side of the house, heard them circling around the house, glancing back, but when Nick's attention went to me I just made for the fridge. Pretended that was my real goal. The rain started again but they were now close enough to hear properly. "I don't think dinner was enough."

"You sure you want more food? You could loose weight if y-" He was elbowed by Clayton, yelping, and changed his tune fast. "Got another beer?"

God, he'd finished that one already? I didn't answer his early dig, just threw a beer at him, and went back to making myself something to eat. Icecream, chocolate syrup, and chocolate buttons. Me? Diet? Nick wouldn't suggest that. He pretended to be horrified if I suggested it.

"Jeremy still in town?" I asked lightly as I leaned against the bench, crutches put to one side, my bad foot resting behind me without weight on it.

"Yeah. Too drunk to make it home. I didn't want to screw the car up" Clayton answered.

I wasn't sure when Elena wanted to move. She was still in the study, moving things around, and Nick got up with his second beer, taking the crutches and using them as he hobbled around the room. If I had been disabled, that was a great way to screw me up. I just watched him passively.

"Drunk driving?" I commented lightly and he grinned at me.

"You really need these stupid things?"

"If I didn't, I'd burn the stupid things, I've fallen over enough times with them." I pretended to go after him, leaning heavily on the bench, keeping my bad leg off the ground as I hopped. "Can I have those back?"

"No." This voice was not Nick's voice. It wasn't from Nick. It was from the back door, and I saw someone coming in from the hallway between old Stonehaven and new Stonehaven at the same time. The spell was broken and I saw a strange man with the crutches. He did smell like werewolf, a mutt I barely recognised from the factory, snapping the crutches easily over his knee as if they were a twig.

The voice had been Demetruis. I didn't need to turn around to know this. I smelt him, I heard him, my skin crawled at the mere presence of him. Four men, including Demetruis, and two women, all directions out of the house blocked off. Only one of them, besides Demetruis, was a mutt.

Still, I played helpless, as Elena was dragged out by the mutt, her arm twisted so far behind her back that I thought it might snap as effectively as the crutches. She was cringing, struggling, and I wasn't sure if she was seriously struggling or pretending. The more he bent her arm, the less she struggled and the whiter her face got.

Demetruis approached me, pushing me back, and I let myself fall. Let myself appear more helpless than I really was, cringing as my foot struck the ground, as my bruised ass hit the ground. "Where's the infants?"

"What infants?"

"Check the house." He ordered, one woman and a man vanishing up the stairs. Demetruis suddenly slammed his foot down on my injured foot and I didn't need to fake pain at that. They weren't life threatening but they were bad enough. Blood started to seep out through the white bandage again. Elena cringed too at this.

"Where are they? Give me the beer." He snatched the half empty bottle from the younger mutt, hitting him over the head. "You needed to drink now?"

"Which on-" I was cut off as he slammed his foot down, something cracking in the foot, and then poured the alcohol onto it, the pain of the alcohol seeping through the bandage into the open sliced skin bringing tears to my eyes... or was that the fact that he kept stepping on my foot? I wasn't sure.

A crack and Elena's hiss of pain made the mutt near me jump, distracting Demetruis a moment, and Demetruis headed at him, hitting him hard now with the bottle, it breaking. "I said restrain them, not break them."

"S...sor..."

"A month without treatment." He snapped, voice full of authority, as I tried to get to my feet, tried to use the couch. I was seriously wondering if I could walk now. "Two months for drinking on the job."

"Please, I didn..." The mutt was pleading now, face as white as Elena's, letting go of her as he stumbled back. He looked almost afraid. "Please, I'll pay... more. Double. Don't..."

"Two months. Keep arguing, see what else I can come up with." Demetruis growled, a low angry growl, betraying the mutt in himself that he kept trying to ignore.

I stood, bad leg shaking, but it was Elena's white face that made me furious enough to forget the screaming foot. She wasn't saying a word, wasn't making a sound, but he'd clearly broken an arm or something. Her arm was not where it was supposed to be.

Demetruis turned on me, suddenly, striking me so hard that I almost fell over. If it wasn't for the couch behind me I might have. "Where are the twins?"

I gawked at him then. "The... th... you took them. Last night." Didn't he?

Demetruis frowned, hesitating, and he was going to answer except that the man and woman came down, Paige between them, looking as white as Elena did, though I smelt or saw no blood on her. "What's that?"

"The coven leader. Hiding upstairs."

"Good." He turned on me, turned with so much fury that he didn't need to strike. Elena was looking worse by the second though, like she was going to vomit, and I stopped waiting for her order.

I struck him hard, right back, nearly tripping as my weight did not stay on my good foot like it should have. Demetruis was not expecting this and stepped back, as I tried to follow, but he was quick to shove me back against the couch so hard I almost fell right over it, if it wasn't for the hand clasping my throat.

"Where are they?"

"She's telling the truth. That's how she got injured and got here." Elena tried to speak, voice breathless, her skin pale. "A group of thieves broke into her house last night. Took the babies and some of her belongings, then set the place on fire."

Demetruis seemed uncertain. He glanced from me to her. Paige was bound up, shoved down, and the man and woman headed back upstairs. They were headed right for the children, I realised with horror, and I struggled to get his hand off my throat. It was closing, tightening, his fingers digging into my skin.

This was not the kickass situation I'd hoped for.

I snapped at him, hands prying at his hand, and suddenly brought my injured leg up between his legs, striking hard. Demetruis cried out in pain, releasing me, nearly falling over from the force of my leg, and I was dropped. Elena's elbow in her good arm struck hard at one of the other men, who had come to hold her, striking straight for his jaw. It broke so easily. The mutt grabbed for her, I saw, but I was distracted with Demetruis who'd tried to get his hands together, kicking at them.

He grabbed my bad foot, grabbed it with his fingers digging in, pulling me hard backwards and I fell onto the ground hard on my back, eyes squeezing shut as fingers dug into wounds. He didn't stop when I was down, kept going, his fingers finding bleeding spots and using them.

"Where's the drugs?"

Oh hell no. I didn't care if he ripped my bloody foot off. I struggled harder, kicking hard at him, while a kit was brought over. Elena was being held still again, her broken arm used against her, face white as they wrenched it. I saw it injected into her first.

"Check her now." He instructed the last two men. They hadn't done much except stand and wait, one with a bag over his shoulder, and they approached only when Elena's eyes rolled back. She was carried to the couch and dropped there.

I struggled hard, the mutt coming over to hold my shoulders down, maybe hoping to win 'weeks back' for his drug. But the sight of what the man and woman upstairs brought down made me freeze.

They had Dominic.

He stared around, eyes wide, as they carted him down the stairs.

"Now, where's my children?" Demetruis said, softly, as he stood up slowly and went towards the toddler, lifting him up by the scruff of his Pjs.

"I do-"

He shook Dominic, shook him so hard that Dominic's little head swung back and forward, and I cried out in fear, struggling, trying to get up. No. "Fuck you, if you don't believe me, go to the house! Their scents are all over the place!"

Demetruis dropped Dominic onthe ground, Dominic limp, falling strangely, heart stopped. Neck in the wrong position. Eyes bleeding. I struggled, even as the mutt held me easily down, even as one of the 'doctors' came with a needle. "Their scent?"

"You're a fucking mutt. Even you'd smell it." I snapped. "I ...I thought you took them!"

The mutt above me nodded a fraction. He shouldn't have had to, Demetruis should have known this, but he considered it.

My eyes did not leave Dominic's body. My skin was itching, the inner wolf screaming now to have control, shaking from the need, the absolute need, to kill the man. I didn't know what he'd done to Dominic but it didn't sound good. Werewolf strength shaking a toddler. I was speechless with rage and horror at this. Paige's face was white and she was crying, her eyes fixed on Dominic, her chest heaving. The woman gagged her.

I'd forgotten Reece. Hadn't even heard him coming. The sound of my heavy breathing, my panicked heart, of Paige's soft sobs against the gag in her mouth and the rain outside, it blocked him out until the very second the blonde wolf crashed through the door, teeth flashing, going straight at the mutt holding me down. It took a second for him to get his target, get his arm, and I grabbed the mutt's head when he let go of me, forcing him to turn. Towards Reece. It was exactly what Reece wanted, the unprotected neck, and I got up as his teeth found the neck of the mutt and clamped down. Blood spurted, a hell of a lot of it, as the mutt tried in vain to dislodge Reece.

I lunged for Demetruis, didn't even wait to stand, and he jumped back, nearly stumbling over the toddler he'd just dropped there.

"We're leaving." He snapped. No words to me, nothing. "If you didn't finish with her, I'm leaving you behind."

Reece stood up, pale muzzle blood red, his eyes narrowing as he saw Dominic and saw Demetruis and put the two together. He lunged at him, the fur standing up, only to be knocked back by a spell that burnt and singed anything in its path, Reece included.

Somehow, between this wall of flames, and the pair that'd gone upstairs, Demetruis got outside. No one followed him.

Reece moved closer, whining softly, Paige trying to get the ropes untied and grab a fire extinguisher to get the flames out. He hadn't come for Elena's twins. He'd come for ours. I grabbed Dominic and tried to find a heart beat. Something. It'd vanished while he was escaping. I whimpered, pushing at him, trying to find a response. He was bleeding. He wasn't breathing.

Paige scooted closer, her face white, hand on my arm. "It's okay. Anne. It's not him. I know it looks like him but..."

God. I realised what she'd done. I swore, eyes shutting, tears, trying to block out the image of Dominic. Dead on the ground. Reece nuzzled up to me. "I fucking..."

"I know. They're safe upstairs. We all saw... god." She looked like she wanted to hug me but Reece did it good enough, his head nuzzling against me. "He's fine. Asleep. Stay calm and don't focus. I have to hold it a while longer."

"All of it?"

"I could only do the children. I'm sorry... If I did more, he'd notice." She touched my arm slowly.

I stood up, ignoring my bad foot, and headed for Elena, trying so damn hard to not see that illusion she'd made. That fucked up illusion. It was what Demetruis would have done though, what he would have done in his anger, and I knew that this proved my point. He wasn't like his son. I was only going to be happy when I was staring at his corpse.

Elena was drugged out of her mind, her arm broken, legs up. They'd stuffed her with ...I inhaled, growled, Reece coming after me. He nipped at my pants, trying to pull at me, but I tried to cover her up. I knew that smell, knew what they'd done. What he wanted from her wasn't her power or her death. No wonder why he'd been pissed off when the mutt had hurt her. She was the one he wanted to keep healthy for nine months.

"There should be a morning after pill in the kit somewhere... Jeremy keeps it either in the kitchen or the ..." Reece pulled harder, growling now, tearing at my pants. I suddenly got it. Demetruis was the priority. "Paige, tell me something only you'd know."

It wasn't an expected question. She blinked at me, hesitating, but Reece stopped tugging and waited. I wasn't leaving Elena alone with the kids like this unless I was sure it was Paige.

"I made Elena hold you down while I waxed your legs." She offered, her voice still shaking. "Stood in your bedroom while you were giving birth, after making you watch someone cut them out in another illusion. Dominic came out feet first, head down, all in five seconds. Nick almost pissed himself seeing what birth looked like. Antonio had to help when he went into shock. Um..."

That had to do. I sighed, started to tug my shirt off, not caring about being half naked or not. "Can you find the kit?"

"I'll find it." Paige nodded. "I'll find it, find the pills, protect the kids. We'll be fine. Get going."

I stripped off as I limped for the study, Reece beside me, I used him to lean on so I could walk. The change was so easy, so fucking easy, with Dominic's scent and blood in my nostrils, my body had waited for this all fucking day. I whined, slid up, bad paw avoided. As we raced out, I saw Dominic's body, squeezed my eyes shut, and tried to stay calm. In focus. The last thing we needed was for me to loose control again and go feral.

The two of us made our way out, nose to the ground, tracing Demetruis as he headed down the driveway as fast as he could. We could hear them in the distance heading for the car.

Reece took off and I hurried after him, ears down, teeth bared, more than ready to finally sink my teeth into the bastard.