"Shouldn't you be trying to stay out of sight?" Emily said as she sat upon the couch. For good measure they had dragged it into the middle of the room, facing the fireplace. Though it was still in plain view of the windows and door, it was strategically placed to offer the best defence in Emily's cluttered apartment. Jasyn threw her a dirty look before stalking into the kitchen for food, Emily sighed and shook her head at him, at this rate they would do Arion a favour and kill each other. Arion hadn't shown up all of last night and to set their plan into motion Jasyn had taken his bird form and deliberately flown from her apartment window to make it look as if she had been left on her own. He then landed somewhere and flashed himself back to her and they spent the rest of the day waiting for Arion to turn up and set the plan rolling. It was approaching six o clock and still they hadn't seen hide nor hair of him, which was making Jasyn edgy and grumpy, which in turn was driving Emily insane.

"This isn't like him," Jasyn said darkly as he leant against the archway leading through to the kitchen, "he should have been here by now."

Jasyn bit into his sandwich and chewed moodily, his eyes constantly scanning the sky outside the window.

"Maybe we made a mistake?" Emily suggested, looking up from her magazine in time to see him throwing her an especially grim look, she raised her brow at him haughtily.

"Babe, I don't make those kind of mistakes," Jasyn replied arrogantly.

"I hope the water hasn't started drying," Emily whispered about to get up and check when Jasyn cursed.

"Will you just sit down, I checked it a few minutes ago!"

Emily was about to say something biting and sarcastic when a clicking near the door was heard, Emily stared at it then at Jasyn who backed out of the line of sight from the door. Heart pounding like it wanted to win best ticker of the year award, Emily turned back to face the fireplace, her body hunched over her magazine which was holding her glock in the creases of it's pages.

There was a shifting in the air that let Emily know someone had just flashed into her apartment behind her, breaching the magical security that Jasyn had around the place. Emily mentally counted the steps it would take for him to reach the water that had been puddled behind the couch. When her sensitive hearing picked up the subtle change in Arion's footsteps, letting her know he had stepped into the puddle she turned lightening fast.

"What the -" the guy behind her muttered to himself, looking down at his wet shoe.

"Now!" Emily shouted and Jasyn threw an electric cable on to the water, it had been the cable to her hairdryer which he had cut off and deliberately tampered with so that the inner wires were exposed. The exposed wires hit the water, Jasyn had been handling it with gloves because live electricity was running through it The shock that it sent out into the Were-Hunter behind her threw him off his feet and had him flashing back and forth from Were to human form. Emily was about to get off the couch when she saw more Were-Hunter's, none of which were Arion, appear in her apartment. Emily raised her gun, took aim and popped off a couple of rounds at the Were that was running towards her, he went down and stayed in human form. Jasyn had already leapt from his hiding place in the kitchen and launched himself into the crowd, he was in bird form and using his talons to efficiently blind the assassins. Emily wasn't sure what to do for the best, Arion wasn't among the group and Jasyn was all on his own out there, she wanted to start firing but it was likely that she would hit the flying form of her mate. Suddenly there was a ripple in the air behind her and before she could move or shout, strong arms wrapped themselves around her, trapping her arms to her side. Emily screamed and felt herself get flashed out of her apartment.

Emily blinked and felt the arms around her loosen, she pushed herself away from her aggressor and turned quickly to give him a hard shove. He stumbled back slightly but was otherwise unconcerned by her retaliation, his hard face remained impassive. Emily suddenly realised she had been taken out of her apartment and out of New York, judging by the scenery beyond the window pane. A scarlet sun was beginning to set on an oceanic horizon while strong waves broke over an iridescent reef and sea creatures played in the clear surf. The room in which she stood was equally as majestic, the huge, circular room was flooded with ruby light courtesy of the ceiling to floor windows spanning the length of the walls. The rays of light spilling in from outside caused the burgundy and gold interior to look like the inside of a furnace, and Emily with her crimson hair, looked like a solitary flame standing amongst it all. With a sudden spurt of fear Emily realised that there were more people in the room then she had first noticed. She was standing in the centre of the room, surrounded by a circular table with an animal or human from every breed of Were-Hunter. This, Emily deduced, was the Omegrion.

"Oh shit," she whispered before another flash of light had her jumping back with fright, Emily let out a noise of utter relief when Jasyn appeared. Her noise, however, was drowned in the cacophony of curses and cheer from the Katagaria and Arcadians present.

"What the hell is going on?" Jasyn demanded, his eyes looking over the heads of the table dwellers to a man that sat off to the side, he was on a high throne which reminded Emily of a lifeguards chair at the pool. Though handsome and physically captivating Emily sensed power emanating from this man and desperately wanted to tell Jasyn to mind his manners when speaking to him.

In fact if it were her she'd grovel.

Emily wasn't sure what he was but from his scent she could tell he was not a Were-Hunter, but was in fact more powerful then them all put together, apparently he was hosting this party. The man simply smiled evilly, one tanned finger idly stroking his neatly trimmed goatee while his other hand languidly beckoned someone forward. Unnoticed in the shadows a man stepped forward, Emily gasped and Jasyn growled, abruptly swept Emily to his side: it was Arion.

Arion flashed himself into the centre of the room with them, though not too near.

"Bastard!" Jasyn snarled and would have stepped forward if it hadn't been for Emily's restraining hand.

"This woman had violated the laws of the Were-Hunter race," Arion announced to the room, pointing at Emily who shrank back against Jasyn. "She has exposed us all by not only making a video tape of a Were-Hunter transforming, but sharing her secret with three human males."

The room sounded like a swarm of angry bees as the inhabitants began to mutter amongst one another.

"I also charge Jasyn Kallinos with conspiracy to her crime, and for not acting in the best interest of his race by allowing this woman to live, therefore exposing us all to the knowledge of humans."

The buzzing grew louder and Jasyn's grip on Emily tightened, he pulled her behind him, Emily knew it was meant to protect her but as far as she was concerned they were surrounded with no where to hide.

"Well, Hawks," the man on high said with amusement, "how do you plead?"

"Not guilty," Jasyn growled, his eyes fixed on Arion but Arion smirked smugly.

"I have evidence confirming their exposure," Arion stated to the amused crowd, Emily looked sideways at Jasyn and he at her, she could tell he was thinking the same thing as her. They watched incredulous and horrified as Arion produced the tape from Emily's camera, that had Jasyn's sensational attack and transformation on it.

"This tape proves," Arion continued, waving the tape slightly above his head, "that the slayer, Jasyn Kallinos, allowed himself to be caught on video camera, transforming from his Were form to his human form, and committing an unprovoked attack upon Arcadians."

He threw it on to the table before the Lykos Rep. Vane Kattalakis, who looked up at the sentinel with ill-disguised loathing, before carrying on.

"This tape was found at the home of Emily McLean, an Arcadian hawkswan, who should have destroyed the tape once she knew what was on it."

There was an outbreak of disagreeable muttering from all around the table and Emily knew it did not bode well for them.

"How do you plead now?" Savitar asked, his face serious and Jasyn sent him a furious, accusatory stare. Savitar knew everything, he knew past, present and future, he knew the unpleasant thoughts Jasyn was having in his head right now about him. If he let Emily go down for something like this then he was the no good scum that a lot of the Omegrion accused him of being. Savitar raised an displeased eyebrow at Jasyn and Jasyn looked unrepentant when he spoke out loud to the representatives, half of whom wanted to see him dead.

"Still not guilty!" Jasyn barked, "and I want a chance to defend myself and my mate."

Jasyn watched Arion's face go from smug to shocked, then to downright enraged, the rest of the animals and humans around the table were in states of disbelief that they had heard, from Jasyn's lips no less, that he was mated. Even worse, to an Arcadian!

Jasyn shifted his hand behind him and took hold of Emily's hand, hoping that his touch would keep her from being so frightened as he wound his fingers firmly between hers, he felt her other hand clasped tightly over the one she held.

"Speak your piece," Savitar said with a generous sweep of his hand as though he were offering Jasyn the floor. Jasyn swallowed before opening his mouth, he hadn't ever been one for making speeches, he tightened his grip on Emily to keep her close.

"What Arion said is true," he began but before he could get out another word there was an eruption of rage and curses from the Arcadians.

"Then your sentence should be death!" Anelise Romano shrieked and was backed by many of the other Arcadians, even some of the more impartial ones who were made less so because of his reputed past misdeeds.

"You have exposed us all!" cried the aged Arcadian bear, Jasyn felt Emily's hand tug at his and it was then that he noticed her step out from behind him.

"You wish to speak?" Savitar looked down upon Emily almost benignly, Emily nodded.

"It - it's true that the tape contains incriminating footage of Jasyn," Emily began calmly, though her hand shook in Jasyn's. "I was the one who shot it and I am the one who should be held accountable in that respect but -"

Emily held up her hands anticipating the next upsurge of noise before it happened.

"Jasyn didn't know that I had caught him on camera at the time," Emily carried on hurriedly, as though she wanted to justify their actions with all the facts before the table could demand another execution.

"He was under attack at the time by Arcadians, when he did finally see that I was filming he attempted to kill me."

Jasyn felt a deep sense of shame at her words, the idea that he had tried to kill her was rather abhorrent to him now, even if he was hell bent on it at the time.

"He was prevented from doing so and when he returned to try and get the tape again he listened to why I had it in the first place."

Emily explained the entire situation to the eager but slightly disbelieving crowd that seemed to be interested in the story in spite of themselves. She told them about having no idea of the Were-Hunter world, of blackmailing Jasyn into helping her, of never in her wildest dreams realising that there was more Were-Hunters out there and that they had laws against exposure.

Emily talked and talked until she became hoarse but Jasyn admitted her story was, though highly farfetched, entirely plausible in their world.

"Had I been properly looked after as a child, I wouldn't have grown up in ignorance and involved us all in potential exposure in the first place," Emily began to conclude logically. "Had it not been for Jasyn I would have very likely caused more damage to others and myself … he never knew the extent of information I'd passed on to my three human friends who, by the way, are very discreet - I mean, its not like anyone will believe them anyway."

She gave what she hoped was a winning and charming chuckle which soon died when no one joined her, she gave Jasyn a despairing look.

"Tough crowd," he said consolingly, though still amused by her efforts and touched by her fervent defence of him. The table was immersed in stunned silence and so was Savitar, though that was due to him leaning on the arm of his throne, pulling indifferently at his eyebrow while staring wistfully at dark waves.

"And …" Fury begun but seemed to struggle with words, "you actually ended up mated?"

"Hey, I didn't see you getting an easy ride when you met your mate, wolf," Jasyn snapped back defensively.

"Yeah, but my situation was difficult," Fury said before adding in a mutter, "not impossible."

Jasyn rolled his eyes, he could tell that the Katagari and Arcadian communities combined were having trouble with his … biracial marriage for want of a better phrase. They could not comprehend that a devout Arcadian hater could end up standing trial for protecting one, who he was now mated to.

"Are we forgetting the point?" Arion snapped suddenly to the crowd, "he still allowed the tape to remain intact, a clear violation of Were-Hunter law!"

"Jasyn did come back to destroy it!" Emily assured them quickly, she looked up at him for support and Jasyn nodded, even though it had been a lie.

"I came back to get the tape and take all evidence on it away, but we got caught up with …"

Jasyn trailed off and looked at Emily who was blushing to the roots of her hair.

"With making up?" Dante supplied wagging his eyebrows and Jasyn scowled at him, then at the general jeering from the rest of the Katagari males, Arion looked outraged.

"Enough wolf whistling from the wolves," Savitar called out lazily, "can you all hurry up and take a vote? All those in favour of a guilty verdict?"

"Before you vote," Jasyn said suddenly, stepping forward, "Emily had no knowledge of her wrong doing … I did. Therefore any punishment you wish to hand to my mate, in the event that you do find her guilty, I wish to be passed on to me."

Jasyn stepped back to see Emily giving him a horrified look, if they ever got out of this she'd kick his ass. However, the imminent threat of them being parted from each other and he being sentenced to death simply had her holding on to him for dear life.

Jasyn watched tensely as hands went up, nearly all the Arcadians, meaning half the room, and even some Katagaria. Arion looked delighted.

"What!" snapped Dante and Paris together, Jasyn pulled Emily behind him.

"He just told you that his mate didn't know what she was doing!" Fury growled.

"And what about all the crimes he has committed before!" demanded the Arcadian hawk representative.

"Jasyn's past is not on trial here," Vane's deep voice sounded through the room, "besides considering that none of us here have a squeaky clean record, I suggest only he - or she - without sin cast the first stone, if you get my drift."

"Timely reference," Fury said with a smirk, Vane shrugged and simply said 'Bride', Fury nodded and the wolves were silent.

Savitar shook his head at them before speaking to the room, "let it be known also that Jasyn was never bought to trial or convicted of any past transgressions, therefore it should not effect your judgement now. If it does I will overrule any verdicts this court comes to."

Jasyn looked up at Savitar in shock but gave him a grateful nod which Savitar returned stiffly.

"Vote again?" Paris Sebastienne suggested and Savitar spoke once more.

"All those in favour of a guilty verdict?"

Arcadian hands went up once more minus the Katagaria hands of last time, Emily leaned into him.

"What happens if it's a hung jury?" she whispered worriedly, Jasyn shook his head in a you-don't- want-to-know gesture, Emily blanched. Should there be a hung jury it was likely Jasyn would have to fight his way out of it.

"All opposed?"

All Katagaria hands went up, Lysander, Paris, Dante, Vane (who was technically Arcadian but Jasyn wasn't picking bones right now), Fury, Alain (who was filling in for his recently deceased mother, but hadn't been elected), Wren and then a hand from the wrong side of the table. Damos Kattalakis, Arcadian, Sentinel, Dragonswain, cousin to Vane, put his hand up in favour of acquitting Jasyn. There was hissing from his Arcadian brethren but he took no notice, he calmly lowered his hand with the rest.

"Interesting," commented Savitar drolly before hammering down the proverbial gavel and dismissing the case, telling Jasyn he was free to go. The reps flashed themselves out and Jasyn breathed a sigh of relief, he turned to see Emily beaming at him, Jasyn pulled her close and fused his mouth to hers because he had to. After coming so close to be ripped from one another, the relief made him sentimental and weak before her, though no one but he needed to know that. He pulled back to pass a shit-eating grin over her shoulder to Arion who was looking incensed, almost as if he were going to walk over to them, but it was more then he dared to do in Savitar's sacred house. Emily looked over at him and sneered, the days when he may have been able to con her into believing Jasyn a murderer were gone.

"Go ahead and hide behind your woman, Jasyn!" Arion goaded, "Sanctuary's finished and you won't be able to hide away from justice anymore!"

"If you wanted me so badly why not call me out," Jasyn retorted sharply, "kill me with some courage like a real warrior, not get the Omegrion to do it for you."

Arion glowered fiercely.

"I can't believe how low you've stooped!" Jasyn sneered bitterly, "calling me out, back to Bulgaria and then sending out hatchling assassins to hunt me for you."

"What?" Arion looked genuinely confused and affronted, "I would never send another to fight my battles!"

"You think I would believe that after all this!" Jasyn spat, his arms wide to encompass the room which was what Arion was to take to mean 'all this'.

"All is fair in love and war," Arion said plainly, his eyes sliding to Emily who cringed. Jealousy flared inside Jasyn and he stepped forward menacingly thinking only of attacking the Arcadian, Arion did the same but before they reached each other an unseen force held them immobile.

"Jasyn!" Emily cried, distressed.

"There will be no fighting in my house!" Savitar growled and both men stopped trying to fight the force that bound them, for Savitar's word was law.

"Incidentally," Savitar continued much more calmly, though not yet releasing them, "should that tape resurface again, we all know who actually has it now. Perhaps you'll do a better job of getting rid of the thing."

Arion said nothing and flashed himself away as soon as Savitar released him, Savitar shook his head and turned his attention to Emily.

"I believe you wanted to see me about something?" he inquired so politely that Jasyn had to wonder if the guy was feeling okay. Savitar spared him a dirty look before proffering his arm to Emily and leading her away from Jasyn, Jasyn immediately began to follow, his territorial urges kicking in but Emily smiled over her shoulder at him and shook her head. When she returned Jasyn was glowering at them both.

"Why are you being so nice?" he said rudely to Savitar who grinned wickedly.

"First impressions are important, hawk," was all he said and flashed himself somewhere, leaving Jasyn and Emily alone.

"Going to fill me in?" he asked with sarcastic politeness and Emily just grinned, she put her arms around his neck and sighed.

"Home first, talk later."