Around the same time Blake was completing the welcoming rituals with the border guards, Hannah was having problems of her own.

It was really all Victoria's fault, she reflected ruefully as she peered down through the gnarled branches of a huge oak tree. She shifted her position amongst the gnarled branches carefully, listening intently for the tell-tale sound of a wolf's paw on the damp leaves below.

If she hadn't been quite so obnoxious, Hannah would never have stormed out of the house in a huff. She would never have decided to try and re-find the lake Blake had taken her to. She would never have gotten lost... and she certainly would never have been stuck up a tree, hiding from a wolf that may or may not want to kill her.

It had been a tough morning all round and, as she waited for the tell-tale sound of a wolf's paw on the fallen leaves, she allowed herself to reflect on the events that had led to her precarious position...

After escaping from a particularly unpleasant run-in she'd had with Victoria shortly after breakfast, Hannah had made the impulsive decision to seek out the lake. It had provided the backdrop for the moment she'd finally decided to give-in to her complicated feelings for the handsome Alpha, and in his absence, she felt an overwhelming desire to catch sight of it once again.

She vaguely remembered the route they'd originally taken, but the thick, persistent fog had wrapped itself so snuggly around the ancient oak trees that Hannah had been hard pressed to find a clear route through them.

On more than one occasion she'd found herself stumbling back up the hill towards the main house with no idea how she'd managed to turn herself around in the labyrinth of hidden trees. It didn't help that every now and then the memories of Victoria's fake, friendly voice drifted back to her, increasing her frustration.

"I know what you're doing." The sickly-sweet words accompanied an obnoxious percussion of five, long, perfectly shaped nails tapping against the dining room table. "The little act doesn't work on me..."

Hannah grimaced as the damp began to soak through her thick jumper, chilling her to the bone. The tapping in her memory faded away to be replaced by the soft rattle of tiny branches as she pushed her way past a tangle of bushes, reaching out across the barely visible path.

The white river of fog mocked her as it flowed in swirling waves through the gaps in the trees; hiding one path, opening up another and then closing it behind her as though it were never there.

"You'll never be Luna material, you know..." Victoria pointed out in her mind. Like fingernails scraping slowly across a chalkboard; even the memory of her voice set her teeth on edge, mocking her attempts to forget that every word had hit home and shaken her confidence.

Full of idle determination, she persevered - fumbling onward past the identical tree trunks that loomed suddenly out of the murk and through bushes so clogged with fog, that the spindly branches seemed to be decorated with puffs of cotton candy.

It wasn't only Victoria's voice she fought against amongst the trees.

As she stumbled onwards, swiping the claustrophobic mist out of her line of sight, the fog seemed to whisper to her. A dance of mocking words, laughing at her pathetic attempts to defeat it.

At some point, she knew not when, she began to talk back. "Oh, I know you're loving this," she muttered to herself as she picked her way carefully along the uneven, unseen forest floor. "Swirl all you want. I'll find my way through, don't you worry."

She clambered over a fallen branch, by now so far from the original path that she was once again heading back on herself away from the elusive lake. "You can't stop me, you know," she told the fog defiantly. "I'm smarter than you are."

Half-way up the hill she tripped over a hidden root, landing hard on her hands and knees. Biting her lip to keep from crying, she stood up and brushed the dirt from her palms. "I thought werewolves were supposed to have more co-ordination than this," she said under her breath, peering into the murky soup looking for something familiar to focus on.

Unbidden, Victoria's voice returned to mock her once more: "He's been mine for a while, honey, it's just a matter of time..."

She shook off her rival's shrill declaration, and chose a route that seemed clearer than the others. A plume of white twisted itself around her ankles as though seeking to trip her up once again. She kicked out and the plume vanished in a puff of clouds.

"Nice try," she muttered at no-one in particular. Then peering ahead, her mouth open in a halo of protest. The house had appeared in her line of sight once again, just beyond the tree line - peeking through the fog like a child playing hide and seek.

Hannah bit her lip against the scream she longed to let loose, and took a long, deep breath. Eyes narrowed in stubborn determination, she turned around, heading back into the depths of the forest once more.

There was a moment she'd considered giving up. When, damp and cold, she'd trudged past the same rotting log for a third frustrating time in a row. She stopped her fruitless efforts to scowl at it, irrationally angry at the fog for deceiving her yet again.

A slight breeze disturbed the cloud of fog surrounding the small clearing, and it bundled upwards, like a fluffy insubstantial snowman, wavering between two trees.

A second gust raised the fog further, and suddenly the fog ‘man’ had the silhouette of a hairdo reminiscent of style Victoria was so fond of.

"It looks ridiculous on you too," she muttered unkindly.

"We're practically mated already." Victoria's smug screech echoed in her mind as the fog billowed outward, too heavy to support it's own weight. The log appeared once again from the thick haze.

Hannah grimaced "Really?" she yelled at the white all around her. "Kick me while I'm down why don't you? I don't care, I can take it! Bring it on!"

The fog, uncaring of her emotional turmoil, danced merrily through the log's hollow core, laughing at her efforts to thwart its games.

She wrapped her coat tighter around her small frame and shivered involuntarily. White and insubstantial, it settled like a cloak around her shoulders and revelled in her misery.

I'm arguing with fog, she realised dejectedly. I'm actually out here, cold and wet and arguing with fog!

How many hours she would have spent, stubbornly persevering against her inanimate foe she couldn't have guessed. Her mind being so utterly focused on reaching the waters of the lake that it had blinded her to her current, soggy situation.

Her saving grace was a sudden shaft of sunlight forcing it's way through the cloud cover. It gleefully penetrated the fog, forcing it to scatter in the unexpected light. The respite lasted only a brief moment, but it was enough for Hannah to catch a glimpse of a glimmer of water between the trees in front of her and she bolted for it - flying through the fog as though the four circles of hell were chasing after her.

Breathless and out of energy she burst through the undergrowth onto the edges of the lake. It lay as still, calm and peaceful as it had been when Blake brought her there just a couple of days ago. In place of diamonds, the surface of the lake lay adorned with silky white whispers, that flowed from the roots of the surrounding canopy of trees.

She took a deep breath, inhaling the damp, heavy air and allowing the peace surrounding the lake to wash over her. Even the fog, so recently an ardent opponent, mellowed around the still waters. It flowed in gentle waves just above the surface, a gentle dance of swirling, ethereal beauty.

It was hard to believe that she'd been at the pack for nearly six weeks now, but so much had happened to her in such a short amount of time she craved some time to just sit and contemplate, sorting through all her complex emotions into something coherent and... useable.

"He'll never be yours..." Victoria had smiled as she tore Hannah's hopes apart, a falsely sympathetic curve of her lips, hiding the malice within.

Her nightmares were getting worse in his absence.

Last night, as Blake had crossed the treacherous no-man's land, Hannah had fretted constantly about his safety. Tossing and turning in her sleep until the dream had claimed her - a dream that twisted and morphed into images of Blake dying by the cold water's edge and her mother's face, dancing within the flames.

"I'm just trying to help you, honey..."

"Oh, shut up," she muttered to the voice in her head, shutting Victoria out for good. She was Blake's problem to deal with, not hers.

Still, the words hurt, and they were one of the reasons she had sought out the lake - she needed to feel what she had felt the last time she was here. Sort out her complex feelings and convince herself that the emotions she'd seen swirling around in Blake's eyes that day were also real.

"When I return, we need to talk," he'd told her vaguely before heading out last night.

What did that mean? We need to talk? She turned the simple phrase over and over in her head, morphing it into a hundred different meanings. Because he wanted to be with her? Because he wanted to be with Victoria? Because whatever was haunting him had finally convinced him that they could never be together?

How odd that such a simple sentence could plague her until her head began thumping with anxiety. A steady beat as though someone were kicking her from the inside out.

She had become so used to the constant headaches now that she strived to ignore it, concentrating instead on the most important question of them all. Before they spoke again, Hannah needed to figure out... did she want to be with him?

She managed only a few short moments of fretful contemplation – during which time she'd managed to half-convince herself that she'd imagined the whole thing – before her ears caught the sound of footsteps in the woods behind her.

No, not footsteps. Pawsteps.

The crack of a twig and the crunch of leaves as four paws padded through the forest. The sounds were accompanied by a series of long, low growls. She froze, suddenly alert to her precarious situation, and realising how foolish she'd been to wander off on her own without telling anyone where she'd gone.

Instinct kicked in.

With a surge of adrenaline, she ran to the nearest tree. Using a low hanging branch to pull herself up, she applied a well aimed kick, snapping it off below her and ensuring no one else could climb up as easily. Pulling herself up as high as she dared to climb, she waited with baited breath for the wolf to show itself.

It was really all Victoria's fault...

The wolf appeared from the murky fog down below and she held her breath. He was thin and scrawny, with patchy fur and overgrown front claws. A rogue. It had to be.

The rogue sniffed all around the clearing, erratically weaving around the ancient oaks until his nose eventually lead him straight to the tree she was hiding in. After a moment peering through the thick roots as though expecting to find her buried in the dirt he looked straight up though the branches, searching for her with red-rimmed, shining eyes.

The fog drifted over the ground, swallowing the wolf with it; for once on her side as it attempted to keep her hidden from view. The sickening cracking sound of a wolf changing form drifted up from beneath her. She heard a shrill giggle and the fog parted to reveal a man at the base of the tree.

Stark naked and filthy, he stared straight up at her - oblivious of the cold. His hair was matted and unkempt, his bare skin streaked with dirt and his eyes held not even the faintest trace of anything resembling sanity. He made a half-hearted attempt to jump up to the lowest branch of the tree but missed by an arms length.

"Come down, lithle girl," he cried, a thick lisp emphasising the insanity in his voice.

"Why? So you can kill me?" she called down to him, hoping to distract him from his efforts to reach her.

His eyes opened wide and he offered her a vicious smile. "Kill you?" he trilled in a sing-song voice, nodding his head in agreement. "Oh yes, we want to kill you." He stalked around the base of the tree in a wide circle, the foul stench of his breath drifting up to her from below. "But first... we want to know why they want you?"

Who are 'they'?

"You mean, Alpha Blake?" she asked, her tenuous grip on the higher branches slipping slightly. She tightened her hold as the fog continued to swirl in gentle waves down below, making the rouge appear as though he were dancing along with it as he disappeared and reappeared around the tree.

"Yes, yes!" he giggled, insanity making his eyes shine bright as he absentmindedly tugged at a twig caught amongst the matted hair of his scraggly beard. "These wolves want you too, don't they? and theys want you and He wants you as well! Everyone wants you, little girl... so we are curious, why everyone wants a little human like you?"

"I'm a –" wait. He didn't know she was a werewolf. He couldn't be part of the group that attacked her in the hospital. Nor the letter writer. Both seemed to know exactly who she was.

"I don't know," she said carefully, her mind racing. "I don't even know who 'they' are."

"They!" he screamed up at her, ceasing his prowling around the thick trunk. "They who chased poor Elrin out of our home! Lying Fenrick," he spat out angrily. "He promised me I could stay there but then theys came and they chased me out anyway!" He pulled at his hair in agitation.

"I see," Hannah said, her heart filled with a strange pity for this pathetic creature - so far gone that she was struggling to follow his wandering thoughts. "And... and who is the other theys – I mean they!"

He looked at her sharply, his black pupils tinged blood red, and she was reminded that this pathetic creature could tear her apart in seconds. "We don't speak that name. Oh no, no. We don't, we don't. Fenrick knows Him. Fenrick hates Him. But I know the madness when I hear it, and we don't speak His name in case he hears us too.” He pressed a dirt encrusted finger to his lips. “Now, hold still, little girl..."

With a shriek and a sudden surge of strength, the mad rogue leapt up at the trunk of the tree and drove his claws deep into the bark, scrambling up towards her. He might have reached her as well if a blur of grey hadn't dashed out from the undergrowth and tightened its jaws around his leg.

In one swift movement the wolf wrenched him down to the ground and ripped out his throat with it's strong teeth.

Hannah screamed, though from the grizzly sight or the shock of the wolf appearing, she couldn't be sure.

The wolf shook itself and peered up at her through the branches. Padding lightly over to one of the other oak trees it disappeared behind them and re-emerged a moment later, pulling a sweatshirt over her head. Amara.

"You can come down now," she called up to Hannah, crouching down to examine the body. His sightless eyes stared unseeing and hopeless into the sky. "Completely feral," she muttered sadly. "Nothing left, whatsoever."

"You feel sorry for him?" Hannah asked, surprised as she slithered down beside her.

"We're not monsters, Hannah," Amara reprimanded her gently, staring out over the water. "Feral wolves become one of two things: very, very dangerous or... completely insane. It can take months, or years. It's not their choice, that's what living without a pack does to you. Why do you think they band together like they do? Only the strongest can withstand the eventual decline.” She tilted her head. “Or those born rogue, and that's extremely rare."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise," Hannah said, of course you had to feel some pity for a creature who could so easily be you should circumstances be different. "Thank you for saving me. How did you find me anyway?"

Amara looked at her strangely. "I've been trailing you ever since you left the house. You didn't really think Alex would let you wander off alone, do you? Especially with the Alpha gone. If anything happened to you, he'd kill us both."

Hannah froze. "You've been following me?"

"Like I said."

"Ever since I left the house?"

"Yes. You were quite difficult to track you know, your scent's all over this area! It goes round in a big loop about four times... what were you doing?"

"I - I - I was lost!" she exclaimed. All that time wandering aimlessly and Amara had been padding along behind her! "Why didn't you help me?!"

Amara shrugged. "You seemed to be busy, I didn't want to disturb you. Besides, I picked up his scent shortly after and I was trying to keep track of the both of you. He was following you as well, in a meandering sort of way - I didn't want to lead him straight to you, after all."

But- but- "Why didn't you kill him earlier then, instead of letting me scramble all the way up a tree and face him like that?!

Amara shrugged again. "I wanted to know why he was here. you were doing a good job making him talk for a while there... I didn't want to waste it. Besides, I could have taken him down anytime - have some faith, girl."

Hannah stared at her in disbelief.

"They're all looking for you, you know," Amara said. "What on earth possessed you to leave the house?"

"I didn't think it would be an issue," Hannah muttered, not wishing to discuss her encounter with Victoria right now.

"Hannah!" Amara said in frustration. "We've been searching for this rogue since sunrise. The pack link's been buzzing about it ever since the border patrols picked up its scent."

"Maybe you should take a walk... clear your head. Figure out what you're going to do now you know the truth."

Victoria's syrupy voice came back to her - her parting gift before flouncing off to look for Sky. Two and two quickly made four and Hannah let out a hiss of anger. "Amara?" she asked carefully. "Would all the wolves be able to hear the pack link? even those that aren't technically pack?"

"Not usually," Amara said in surprise. "But the Alpha made sure all the guests were temporarily initiated into the main link last week, for safety, considering recent events. Why?"

Hannah's eyes narrowed and her cheeks flushed with anger. Victoria! That sneaky, vindictive bitch!

"Are you alright?" Amara asked curiously.

"I'm fine," Hannah said shortly. "I just think someone forgot to mention the rogue when I spoke to them this morning."

Amara's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Who?"