The sun began to rise as Aerilyn and Eli were almost at the resistance base, it had been a long night and she was sure she was running off adrenaline.

Aerilyn thought someone was lurking in the shadows watching over them, maybe even Solenne, but whoever it was left after they had made it to the ridge of the mountain.

They knew they had made it to the boundary when a large group surrounded them with bow and arrows aimed at them. "It's me Eli" her brother shouted.

He held his hands up in the air as he stepped forward. "I've got my sister, Aerilyn, send word to Saryn and Yvonne" he asked. There were a few murmers but sure enough the weapons aimed at them were lowered. Saryn came out and waved at them.

Her legs were very sore from the walking. "Aerilyn is that you" he squinted, moving closer and closer.

He pulled her into a hug straight away, "let's get you inside" she was quiet for now, surveying her surroundings as she had been through a lot.

Once inside there was quite a large settlement, one that she had not been expecting and it threw her off. "you must be tired and hungry, i'll take you to your room, it's next to Eli's" he led her through the camp, it was quite quiet considering it was morning, but there were old buildings that they had turned into houses and sanctuaries to house them all. They did their best under the circumstances.

The room was a lot smaller than her room in the castle that was for sure, they were polar opposites, like rags to riches. Now she had nothing again.

A knock on the door startled her as she tried to adjust, there stood a woman with brown hair similar to her own, but just thay bit older and her wrinkles had started to set into her skin. "you must be Aerilyn, i'm Yvonne, your mothers sister, I met you once when you were a toddler" Aerilyn raked her eyes over her aunt. They were about the same height and she looked like her mother, but other than that she did not know her and she was wary.

The woman had a strange aura and a stern face that Aerilyn picked up on straight away, maybe the vampires intuition brushed off on her.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you" Aerilyn gave a small smile as she put her things down on the bed.

"how was the journey Eli?" she turned to him sternly. So far something about this place didn't add up but she couldn't put her finger on it, maybe it was because it was change and new, she had to admit she missed the castle, it hurt.

"yes it was good, were were definitely being followed but they were obviously not allowed to engage. It's good to be back, I hated it there, luckily Aerilyn came to her senses" it was like Eli was trying to suck up to his aunt, someone who had been in his life two minutes. Speaking as though he had been treated awfully back at the castle, which was simply not true.

Her aunt stood strong. "yes well its a good job you helped her come to her senses, nothing good comes from leech lovers" her aunt spat as she eyed Aerilyn.

What kind of attitude was that, she had known her two minutes as she was already belittling her, it might have been the time she spent with the vampires but now she had a different point of view, she couldn't believe she use to think like that.

Aerilyn was second guessing herself, was this the right thing to do being here. "if it's alright with you guys I am going to get some rest" she lay down on her bed.

"okay, but tomorrow your chores start, we all muck in here don't we Eli" Yvonne ruffled his hair, this woman aunt or not was getting on her nerves, acting as though Aerilyn was lazy.

Aerilyn shut the door as they left and settled down on her rock solid bed to try and get some sleep. She fell asleep until midday and decided to venture out to give the camp a try, she could always try and find Tri or Eamon to see how they were. What startled her was how quiet camp was, nobody was really talking as she went outside.

Meanwhile Solenne was going to meet the new Alpha with Nilsa on a whim that they could come to a truce for now, they had one thing in common with each other and that was the respect for the mate bond. They met deep in the woods away from everyone, there was a slight break in the woods with a stream that they were to meet at.

Solenne heard movement, she knew they were close, it was to be the wolf and his beta that would meet with them. Two large wolves emerged, one black and the other brown, they were very large. "I understand if you do not want to shift, but you will not be hurt and it would be easier to talk to you" Solenne spoke. The wolves snarled, she knew they would not shift whilst they felt threatened and so she did the most ridiculous thing she could, but it was all in aide of Aerilyn.

If anyone knew anything about Aerilyn's aunt it was the wolves, she had to find a way to have a truce with them.

She sat down on the floor.

The wolf moved in on Solenne and sniffed her checking her out to see whether she was threat or not. Solenne just sat still and didn't move, she could kill the wolf if she wanted to whether she was sat down or not.

The large black wolf then moved its eyes to Nilsa and stepped closer, Nilsa was staring back, with its heavy paws it moved and circled her, leaning in a sniffing her. Solenne stood up to intervene but the large black wolf bared its teeth at her. Solenne then looked at Nilsa to see her face was one that she had seen before, a feeling she knew all too well.

"mate" Nilsa spoke.

"shift" Nilsa asked the large black wolf.

The black wolf looked a bit longer before shifting, luckily alphas shifted in their clothes, but this alpha was not what they had been expecting one bit.

The alpha was a girl with shoulder length auburn hair, she had her packs tattoo on her shoulder and a few scars from fighting.

Solenne could tell from the wolfs aura that she was different to the other alphas. "well things just get better, your mate is an alpha, a wolf and a girl" Nilsa just ignored Solenne as she stepped closer to her mate.

"What is your name?" Nilsa asked reaching out to touch her face.

The alpha was unsure and felt threatened, this was not how she expected this meeting to go, she stepped back causing Nilsa to frown.

"My name is Zenon, Alpha Zenon" she reiterated.

Solenne moved closer to the two this time, "i'm sorry but time is of the essence, we don't have time for this as much as I am happy for you both" Solenne was growing impatient.

Alpha Zenon had hated the vampire Queen just as much as the other wolves, she hated vampires altogether, that's how they were brought up. "you want our help, but you slaughtered many of our own" Alpha Zenon spat.

Nilsa felt torn between two species, she didn't care who her mate was, she just wanted to love and be loved. "this is not how I wanted to meet my mate, I've waited years for this" Nilsa was upset and Zenon felt it, they could not deny their bond.

Zenon allowed Nilsa to touch her face finally, she felt hot under her touch, the urge from her wolf to mark her was intense. "I'm sorry it had to be like this, I too have waited a long time"

"please help us" Nilsa whispered, it was barely inaudible. Zenon looked into Nilsa's eyes searching for any signs of foul play or malice, but so far she found none, she only saw desperation.

Solenne paced in the woods "we have lost many of our kind too, we don't want to fight any more, we want the humans to be free, for us to all get along" Solenne spoke again.

"does that have something to do with your human mate?" the beta asked who had also now shifted, he stood tall next to Zenon. Word must have reached fast if she already knew about the vampire Queen's mate, this would potentially mean she was in danger if people knew.

Solenne nodded in confirmation "she allowed me to see the error in my ways, but I fear she is in danger we were both tricked. I am looking for a woman high up in the resistance, she is her Aunt, do you know of anyone?" Solenne asked, she knew she was asking for a lot but she had no choice.

Zenon looked back at Nilsa in deep thought, "there is only one that I know of but she is ruthless, her name is Yvonne" she advised.

Solenne knew that name, she had encountered her before.

"will that be all?" Zenon asked. Nilsa was worried she was going to leave and so she grabbed her hand and pulled her in for a hug, the wolf froze for a second before she melted into her, both could not get enough of the other's scent.

"please come back with us, everyone thinks you are coming for dinner anyways, there is so much to talk about" Nilsa was excited at the prospect. Zenon's eyes melted at the sight of Nilsa, she leaned in and kissed her cheek.

"we should be heading back" the alpha was hesitant, she also was reluctant to leave her mate but she had her duties to attend too.

Solenne didn't want to upset Nilsa and so did what she could to help. After all Nilsa had done so much for her. "You know the rules of the mate bond, Nilsa has looked after my mate in my weakest moments and I will do the same for her, no harm will come to you or your beta" Solenne promised.

"one night and then we will leave" Alpha Zenon proposed as Nilsa jumped with joy grabbing her hand to walk back to the castle.

"Are you sure about this Alpha?" Her beta asked.

Zenon smiled softly at him. "Come, they won't harm us".

Back at the resistance, Aerilyn felt like an outsider at camp, no one looked or acknowledged her here and so she went to look for Saryn or Eli.

She eventually found Saryn in a hut "Afternoon, how are you feeling?" he asked as he stepped outside with her away from the others, closing the rustic door behind him.

She hesitated, "I'm getting there slowly, it will take a while" Aerilyn finally responded.

Quickly changing the subject, "so this is you huh, elder in the resistance" she joked.

Saryn gave her a light push, "I'm not that old"

"come on back to work, we don't all have time to joke around all day" Yvonne walked into the hut.

This caused Saryn to scurry away quickly, how odd. She was use to seeing him lead rather than him doing as he was told. "I'll see you later, take it easy today" he went straight back into the hut.

Aerilyn decided to walk around the camps perimeter to have a look, it was more like a prison than the Queen's palace was, it was all metal fencing here like a prison would normally have, with no way for her to escape. She found the food hut and decided to eat, but they were all on rations of beans and rice.

Aerilyn tried to push past it and think of the greater good, she was with her people once more, but still, her heart longed for someone who had lied to her and hurt her. She sat thinking about Solenne, what was she doing, was she with Tessa? But she had to push those thoughts out of her head it would do her more harm than good.

Aerilyn ate her food and returned to her room, there was no where else to go and nobody wanted to talk to her, she did not want to be a burden to anyone.

Solenne, Nilsa and the two wolves had made it back to the castle, the guards were informed of their guests and nobody was to hurt them. They had quickly got to work with drawing up a treaty that Solenne would have to announce to her own people, most would be okay with it as they were pretty liberal, but some of the older generation would not.

Luckily, Solenne had a lot of sway with her people, the only problem would be the humans and whether they would accept it or not.

Richard and Luanna walked into the room to have a go at Solenne, "you can't just take off like that alone" they scolded her.

"you can when someone in your own castle has betrayed you" Solenne was venomous as she turned away from them.

Richard and Luanna frowned they were hurt. "you know we would never do such a thing, we care about Aerilyn as much as we do about you, so much so that we have done some digging and we know what happened" Richard then spoke as he walked up to Solenne. If there was one person she would listen to it was him.

"I already know what happened" Solenne was too clever for her own good.

"then you know that we had nothing to do with it" Luanna argued.

The wolves stepped back, this was not their confrontation, Nilsa grabbed Zenon's hand and stood closer to her.

"I know" She groaned, defeated. She was pushing them away due to hurting, a defence mechanism.

Richard carefully held his hand out to Solenne, "let us help you, you can't do this alone" he reassured.

Solenne took his hand, tears threatening to spill out, never in her years had she cried like this and Richard was there to wipe them away.

"What do you propose?" her cold demeanor swiftly returning.

"I've quit my job, I want to take over General Talc's job and then we are going to train" Solenne was astonished at his outburst.

"that doesn't sound like much of a plan General" Solenne confirmed that he had the job, she had wanted him to do it years ago but he had been otherwise tied up, he was the best person for the job with his expertise and wisdom.

Holding Solenne's hand in his he carried on "It is when we will be surrounding the resistance camp to get Aerilyn back, but it won't happen overnight, you must be patient" he spoke defiantly.

Solenne shook her head. "she doesn't want me, she left" Solenne doubted herself.

"because she thought you had betrayed her" Nilsa spoke from one side of the room.

"when she finds out the truth, she will leave, I'm sure of it" Nilsa spoke again.

"If I may interject, you can't just go and kill all of the humans in that camp. You also cannot reason with Yvonne and so you are going to have to draw them out of where they are staying, but that will not be easy because it is like a prison there" Alpha Zenon spoke.

"Are you still working with them?" Luanna asked.

"Not since I became Alpha, they were stupid to have done the humans bidding, it wasn't our fight, there has been enough bloodshed" Zenon spoke truthfully.