Emily left her room the next morning and travelled towards the bar for the start of her shift, she poked her head into the kitchen to say hello to Lucille then proceeded to the bar area. Margie was there something Emily was glad of; the woman would give her some sympathy that she desperately needed.

"Hey girl," Margie said cheerfully, "you okay?"

"I don't know, Margie," Emily muttered and explained to her in whispers everything that had transpired between the two tigers and herself yesterday.

"Oh my stars!" Margie gasped, her hand over her heart in shock, "you poor thing! You know you should tell Mama Lo, she wouldn't stand for it."

"No, I don't think I will," Emily said decisively, "I've got to learn to stand on my own two feet, I mean, if I don't learn how to protect myself no ones going to do it for me."

"You know, they'll respect you more for that."

Emily and Margie looked over their shoulders to see who'd spoken. It was a tall, handsome, Native American man with sleek ebony hair that fell over his shoulders like liquid ink. His words which were softly spoken blending well with his calming demeanour, for the first time since she'd came into the Sanctuary Emily felt that should she touch someone without express invitation from them she might live through it … with her hand intact. He nodded calmly to Margie, his eyes lingered on Emily then he walked back into the Peltier house carrying a bottle of vodka.

"You need me, boss?" Margie called to him, he looked over his shoulder and shook his head but his eyes were fixed on Emily, then he disappeared behind the door.

"Who is that?" Emily asked.

"Carson Whitethunder," Margie explained, "he's the house doc and vet. He's a nice guy, but quiet too, and thoughtful. He likes to spend time on his own just thinking things through. He's a real gentleman."

It came out genel'man and Margie gave Emily a happy look, as if to say I know because I'm his friend.

"He's a hawk," Emily said in awe, after being a Sanctuary for a few hours she'd become adept at recognising individual people and animals by their scent alone. Margie cleared her throat and Emily looked back at her.

"Is he always so …?" Emily tried to find the words for his serene, mystic and wise persona; the man seemed to ooze wisdom and knowledge that went beyond the workings of the human and animal anatomy or medicine.

"Yeah, he is," Margie sighed, her eyes were downcast and she swirled the liquid in her glass in a wistful way.

"You have feelings for him," Emily stated and Margie snapped her head up and looked at Emily with serious eyes.

"No, of course not!" Margie snapped, "why would you say such a thing?"

"Margie," Emily said calmly, "I can sense it."

Margie's shoulders sagged like she had been deflated and she shrugged, "I've been good at hiding it. It doesn't do much good dwelling on it."

"Why?"

"Because I don't exist in his eyes other then as his assistant," Margie murmured and sipped her drink; she looked up with falsely cheerful eyes. "Oh well, not as if I'm the first woman to want something she can't have, right/"

"No, you ain't," Emily grumbled, finding herself thinking about Jasyn and loathing herself for it, "I know how you feel, Margie."

"You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"Not a soul," Emily assured her sincerely, "besides who would listen to me? Half the people in here would kill me as soon as look at me … For what it's worth Margie, if I was a guy I would love you."

Margie laughed lightly, as if she felt better after their little heart to heart, she kissed Emily on the cheek in an elder sisterly kind of fashion, "oh, you are precious!"

Emily smirked and watched Margie return to the other end of the bar to refill someone's glass, suddenly she froze. Her senses detected the scent of tiger and Emily wanted to groan, she turned and saw the two tigers coming out of the door that led into the Peltier house. They met her eyes and held, they said nothing as they made their way to the opening in the bar, Emily turned with them, never giving them her back.

"How much did you put out to have a Katagaria protect you?" the taller tiger spat at her and Emily blinked.

"Corin!" The other tiger reprimanded with a vicious snarl.

"I don't have a protector," Emily said stupidly before becoming indignant, "and I don't put out thank you very much!"

"You must be good for him to guard you so," Corin sneered at her, "though I would be dead before I touched an Arcadian."

"Who are you talking about?" Emily asked, thinking of Carson, perhaps he had ….

"Maybe hawks stick together! No matter what they are -"

"Or maybe they just don't like pricks like you!"

The two tigers jumped and turned around at a deadly voice from behind them and Emily's jaw dropped. Jasyn!

She hadn't even seen his approach and the two tigers, which were no doubt more adept in their powers, hadn't even smelt him. Both of them went white and Jasyn sneered at them.

"We haven't touched her!" the smaller one said earnestly and the other nodded stupidly next to him. Jasyn looked past them to Emily and surveyed her before demanding, "are you alright?"

Emily nodded and stared at him with shocked and curious eyes.

"I suggest you get out of my sight," Jasyn said calmly to the tigers and they practically ran for the door. Jasyn didn't even glance at her as he moved to come behind the bar; he only looked up when someone said his name. Dev was coming up from the kitchen holding a case of beer; he looked like he might drop them.

"What?" Jasyn asked belligerently.

"Nothing," Dev said, recovering himself quickly, "it's just that … you're in human form - and it's not even your shift."

"I needed air," Jasyn said and moved past Dev towards the door to the Peltier house, he snagged a beer as he left.

"That is one freaky fucking individual," Dev said partly to himself and partly to Emily.

"Yeah," Emily whispered, shocked that Jasyn had warned the tigers off of her, "are you afraid of him?" She asked Dev suddenly, Dev looked at her thoughtfully.

"Why would you ask that?" he asked curiously, shifting the case of beer to his hip and giving her some serious eyeballing.

"Well, lots of people seem to talk about him in a respectful way."

"And you equate respect with fear?"

"In the places that I grew up they went hand in hand," Emily said and Dev sensed an old soul hiding in her body.

"Is that so?" he said gently, "well, as to your question, no I'm not afraid of him. But I have a healthy respect for his abilities as a fighter and a fellow killer."

"You're a killer?" Emily said, unable to keep the cynicism from her voice, Dev laughed heartily.

"All animals are killers," Dev explained and Emily kept her mouth firmly shut even though it was on the tip of her tongue to state that he was Arcadian, but from what she'd gleaned by being in this place was that it was a well kept secret. "Jasyn is a mystery to us all. Complicated and deadly. All we know of him is what the rumours say."

"You talk of him like he is some type of ghost," Emily laughed and Dev gave her a strange look.

"For many years people believed him to be. He'd disappear for years on end and come back with more scars and more bounty on his head. He is legend."

"Has anyone asked him if the rumours are true?"

"Why don't you?" Dev scoffed, Emily could see what he meant. Jasyn looked likely of ripping the arms off of the person that looked at him wrong let alone asked him deep, personal questions.

"I might just do that," Emily said to herself, forgetting that Dev could hear better then most humans.

"Then you're a lot braver then we all give you credit for," he said casually.

Emily finished her shift and headed towards the top of the house, she inhaled deeply as she came to the top of every flight of stairs, following Jasyn's scent. She found his door on the hallway just below the attic, it was shorter then the rest of the hallways on the lower levels and darker too. Emily moved towards the door, she rubbed her palm a few times over her hip before taking a deep breath and taping on the door. There was no noise or voice that told her to enter so Emily just gathered her courage and opened the door. The room was sparsely furnished and empty of occupants, Emily was about to step over the threshold when she felt a strong grip capture her arms from behind and whip her around.

"Jasyn!" she gasped, and gave a little scream when she felt her feet leave the floor, he planted Emily in his room and closed the door behind him as he advanced.

"What do you want?" he demanded, his voice laced with something beastly. He was naked from the waist up and on his bottom half he wore black slacks. It was the first time Emily was in a position to appreciate his body, the other times heightened emotions had blinded her to his masculine beauty.

"I, err …" Emily pretended there was something in her eyes and rubbed at them to give herself thinking time, and to stop herself staring at his hairless chest and abs, his broad, strong shoulders and rock hard pecs.

"What?"

"I wanted to say thank you," Emily blurted out. Had she?

"For what?" Jasyn said nonchalantly and moved past her, bumping her sore shoulder as he did so, Emily winced and Jasyn saw her.

"What's wrong?" he asked immediately, turning to look at her, Emily chose selective deafness and answered his first question.

"I wanted to thank you for warning those guys off," Emily said and blushed with shame, "and I want to apologise for hitting at you. It wasn't right and I shouldn't have expected you to get involved in something that had nothing to do with you."

Well, didn't that just make him feel like a shit?

Jasyn frowned at her and she blushed harder, she fidgeted with the ends of her hair, "well, sorry," she said lamely and Jasyn tried not to soften towards her, but he couldn't help it. Not that she had to know of course, but he realised he affected more anger then he actually felt when she was around, if anything she soothed him.

"Great. Fine, whatever," Jasyn said with effected indifference, "so what's up with your shoulder?"

"Nothing," she protested sincerely and Jasyn smelt her lie, relishing what he was about to do he approached her swiftly and backed her into a wall. He saw her eyes flick from his lips to his eyes then back to his lips again, her own parted. Jasyn pressed himself closer to her until she had no breathing space, no private space, until she was all he could feel, see and smell. He raised one hand to move her hair from her eyes and he saw her lid flutter, he smirked and watched them pop back open when he ripped her shirt from her shoulder.

"Ow!" she cried and then gasped in horror, "my shirt! My shirt! What have you done?"

"How did you do this?" Jasyn hissed when he saw a mild bruising on her shoulder blade as he turned her, if it was just healing now it must have been a bad one last night.

"My shirt!"

"I'll fix it," Jasyn growled at her and she glared at him, making him hotter then hell, "how did you do this?"

"I know I just apologised but you deserve this!" Emily shouted and with a closed fist, thumped his chest, her fist literally bounced off of his pecs. Jasyn gave an evil chuckle when she frowned at him.

"If you listen hard you'll hear it echo," he said nastily and Emily frowned harder.

"What are you talking about?"

"Hollow." Jasyn thumped his own chest making a bigger impact then she had, Emily was silent and Jasyn gestured to her shoulder again.

"You were a little rough," Emily said quietly, gazing at his chest.

"What?" Jasyn snapped, more out of disbelief then anger.

"It doesn't hurt that much," Emily said casually and lifted her hand to touch his chest where he'd hit himself, at the stroke of her hot fingers against his cool flesh Jasyn felt goosebumps break out. But he could not enjoy the sensations when he thought of how he'd thrown her back at the wall yesterday. For the first time in many centuries Jasyn felt shame consume him.

"I'm sorry," he said stiffly and Emily closed her eyes and shivered.

"What are you doing?" he asked, confused by her.

"Savouring an apology from you. They're like Halley's comet, extremely rare."

"It's not funny," Jasyn reprimanded her and she shrugged indifferently, he looked down when he felt her fingers brush his forearm, she was tracing his scars.

"You have more of these then you do friends," Emily said flippantly, Jasyn withdrew his arm from her.

"That's true," he said tonelessly and she raised her eyes to his.

"I was just joking."

"I'm not," Jasyn responded coldly, "it's the truth. Were-hunters very seldom have friends."

Jasyn felt pleasurable warmth flow up his arm when Emily took his arm back into her possession; she stroked her finger over his scars again. Jasyn leaned in slightly over her down turned head and inhaled, her scent was so soothing to his senses, he'd have given a lot to be the type of man that could bury his face in her hair. But he wasn't he reminded himself, as he steeled himself against the loss of warmth, Jasyn withdrew his arm. With his powers he fixed her shirt and stepped away from her.

"You should get a check up from Carson," he said briskly, not looking at her, "you're a were-hunter, we heal fast. If that's not healing it may be more then a bruise. He may be able to do something, give you something for the pain at least."

Pain that he'd given her … Jasyn loathed himself in that moment, more so because a small, traitorous part of him wanted to be human. Just so he could go nearer to her again and dip his head and place his lips upon hers and know that it wasn't wrong or forbidden.

"Okay," Emily muttered distractedly and made to step towards him, Jasyn backed up swiftly not wanting to test his will power.

"No, Emily," he said firmly, the use of her name on his lips seemed to shock her back into reality.

"You didn't care before," she said and hated herself because she felt like she was begging him.

"Never again."

Jasyn said it firmly and he meant it, but he didn't know if he could keep the promise to himself, a part of him actually liked her; the rest of him was so powerfully attracted to her he felt like he wanted to rub up against her every time he saw her. Emily nodded and stepped back, her cheeks flushing a bright scarlet, Jasyn felt even guiltier.

"Emily, it's just wrong, okay," Jasyn tried his best to explain, "Katagaria and Arcadians aren't meant to be together. It wouldn't work."

"Fine," Emily said as if she didn't care, Jasyn wondered whether it was real or faked. "But remember our deal, Jasyn."

Jasyn tried not to savour hearing her say his name and concentrate on her words. Ah, yes the deal. He'd forgotten.

"You get the tape when you show me how to survive in the were-hunter world. I think judging by my shoulder that I need a few pointers."

Jasyn felt his head snap back on his neck as if he'd been hit, his guilt stung his insides and he wanted to growl at her for making him feel it. Especially over an Arcadian.

"I apologised for it, didn't I?" he snarled at her and she rolled her eyes at him, being as dismissive of him as she always was.

"I was being sarcastic," she said exasperatedly.

"You know sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, right?" Jasyn pointed out and Emily shrugged with a half smile.

"It's the funniest though."

Jasyn waited until she'd left his room before allowing the smile to form on his mouth, he supposed she was right about that. Jasyn rubbed his palm over his chest and brought it to his nose smelling her scent where she had been pressed tightly against him; he groaned and felt tortured for wanting something he knew wasn't just wrong but a complete violation of everything he stood for. After all he'd done in his life; he could not allow his feeling for this one woman to change him. Even if he did, once she knew his reputation for being ruthless and cruel and … and a killer, she'd hate him forever.

Carson looked up from his notes when he heard a tap on the door; he smiled pleasantly though his heart picked up a beat.

"Hello," he greeted her, the one with the red hair.

"Hey," she said a little awkwardly, "I was told to come and see you, erm, to take a look at my shoulder."

"What's wrong with it?" Carson asked, getting up quickly, pretending to act like the good doctor even though his palms grew damp at the thought of touching her, another hawk. "Here, have a seat."

Emily came in to the bright, clinical room and wrinkled her nose as the disinfectant overwhelmed her senses. She hoisted herself up on the bed he had stretched out by the wall; he approached, looming over her with that friendly, doctor smile.

"What's with your shoulder?"

"I hurt it the other day and was told that I should get it checked because it hasn't healed completely by now."

"Which shoulder?"

Emily tapped her right and Carson nodded. "May I take a look?"

"Sure."

Emily whipped the buttons from their holes and shrugged out of her shirt while Carson snapped on a pair of latex gloves. Emily didn't miss the flaring in Carson's eyes and after Jasyn's swift denial of her it made her feel good. If she were the type of woman, she would have preened under his covetous gaze, but Emily knew it would be wrong. Emily angled herself so her shoulder and the bruise could be seen; she felt Carson's cool, clinical fingers touch the tender area.

"You did this yourself?" Carson asked as though he highly doubted it.

"Yes," Emily affirmed, Carson raised a doubtful eyebrow.

"How?"

"I bounced off of someone into a wall," Emily said with a sly smirk and Carson shook his head seriously.

"Whoever did this could be thrown out of Sanctuary for this," he told her, feeling the area under and over the bruise.

"It was an accident," she informed him firmly, wanting there to be no doubt; she really didn't to get Jasyn in any kind of trouble.

"Well, whoever told you to come to me was right enough, as a were-hunter you should have healed completely by now."

Emily nodded and when he gestured to her to follow him, she did so to a room for an x-ray. When it was done Carson let her put her shirt on while he went for the x-rays, he held them up to the light to see, Emily looked over his shoulder.

"Bruising to the bone," she said nonchalantly, she'd thought as much, Carson looked around at her in surprise and she smiled. "I've worked with a lot of veterinarians in my time; I can read x-rays pretty well."

"Damn," he said smoothly, appreciation lacing his voice.

"You're Katagaria?" Emily asked curiously and Carson nodded slowly.

"Why?"

"Well, you've been very nice to me," Emily shrugged carelessly, "or perhaps that all part of the doctor patient privilege, you have to be nice, right?"

"Nope," Carson said, taking off his gloves, "good thing about working with were-hunters is that most of them are ornery bastards, I'm not obliged to be the kind and patient doctor."

Emily gave a small chuckle and Carson felt the need to keep talking since there was really nothing he could do for her and therefore no reason to keep her there.

"How come you're here?" Emily asked, leaning her hip against the bed and Carson didn't answer for a minute, making a fuss about shifting some papers into a drawer. Emily recognised it as a major evasive technique; Edward had used it on her all the time.

"I asked Mama and Papa to let me set up a surgery here and they did," he said simply.

"And that's it?" Emily asked with a disbelieving laugh, Carson raised an eyebrow at her and she could tell he was a little bit annoyed at her reaction.

"Did you expect there to be more?"

"Well, yeah," Emily said bluntly, drawing a smile from his impassive face, "so if you're here by choice where are your parents? Your family?"

"You're very nosy, you know?"

"Inquisitive," Emily corrected and she saw his lips twitch.

"There's a difference?"

"Of course," Emily said lightly, "I'll explain it another time."

Carson quirked his lips up in a serene half smile and gave a little shrug, "they're around."

Emily was feeling some major change-the-subject vibes coming from Carson and nodded, ready to take her leave.

"Well, I'll be seeing you around," Emily said, standing straight, Carson turned quickly with a frown.

"You're leaving already?"

"Yes, she is."

Emily looked over her shoulder and Carson looked past her to see Jasyn standing there, damn, the man moved like the wind, utterly silent and unseen. Emily scowled and scoffed at him.

"I'll go when I want to," she snapped, but realised that Jasyn wasn't listening to her, he was looking past her at Carson. Emily saw something unsaid going between the two male hawks and knew she would never be privy to it so with a disgusted noise she shoved past Jasyn when he didn't move for her and headed to her room.

Jasyn waited until she was out of earshot before he spoke.

"Keep your distance, boy," Jasyn warned in a deadly voice, "she isn't for you."

"Is she yours then?" Carson retorted sarcastically, both fearing and relishing the tightening of Jasyn's jaw.

"I'll only tell you once," Jasyn said quietly, "keep. Your. Distance."

"And what if she doesn't want me to?" Carson taunted, Jasyn's lips twisted, Carson guessed it was meant to be a smile, and made a vow to himself that he would not pursue Emily at any cost, especially if it meant he wouldn't end up tangling with the likes of Jasyn.

"I'll keep away," Carson assured him nonchalantly though he was worried in case the psychotic bird took a swing at him, "but I'd get a move on if I were you. You're not the only hawk in this place and not everyone will back off when they see she hasn't been marked."

Jasyn sneered at him but realised that the young one was right, others may have designs on Emily and as far as he was concerned they could have her, she wasn't his property or responsibility. He wasn't going to go near her in that way, he didn't want her in that way.

Jasyn knocked on Emily's door damning himself as he did so, she opened it and gave him that typical sarcastic look of hers, making him want to go at her like a train.

"Do you know how to fly?" he blurted out and Emily blinked.

"I broke my ankle the first time I tried," she said shrugging and Jasyn tutted, she scowled at him.

"Well, excuse me, Tweety Pie, some of us weren't born with wings!"

"Neither was I," Jasyn snapped back, "I was hatched."

"Well, wasn't that just a fine day?"

"The finest," he retorted quickly and watched as her lips reluctantly turned up in a grin, "be ready. Tomorrow."

Jasyn was about to turn and leave, feeling satisfied that he'd had the last word.

"But -"

Jasyn glanced over his shoulder at her, he raised an eyebrow.

"I can't transform in the day time," she said blushing, Jasyn felt his heart turn far too tender for his peace of mind.

"We can work on that," he said and nodded to her, leaving for his own room, he knew that she was still watching him as he left and liked the feeling of her eyes on hi a lot more then he should.