It had been almost fifteen hours since Aislinn had left the Academy and nothing had gone the way she had wanted.

It had been nearly and hour since she had felt them cross her scent. She'd gotten sloppy with fatigue, and her mistakes cost her. After 15 minutes trying to run and escape them, she had made the desperate decision to barricade herself in confines of an ancient soaring oak. She felt a dark humor rise within her as she pondered her situation. Five years of planning, waiting, and dreaming and it was all slipping through her fingers. She eyed the dark forest around her, fuck!, she swore darkly turning back to stare down at the ground.

The soft moonlight illuminated the scene so that combined with her enhanced vision she could easily watch as the enraged council rogues took turns trying to leap into the tree. They growled at her, howling in anger and rage, as they desperately tried to climb the tree in wolf form. Her face was impassive as she considered them. She had not shifted, instead she stood in her human form calmly considering her options. Unfortunately for them, and herself, there weren't many. Her head snapped up suddenly, pulling her from her musing as she searched through the thick dense trees.

Unlike the beasts below Aislinn did not miss the approach of the Salvatori wolves. Another wrench in her plans she internally grumbled, she never meant to wander onto pack land. In fact, the entirety of her plans depended on her existence never even being known, and preferably never acknowledged, by any of the packs.

Mac! She sneered in her head. The man was a thorn in her side that wouldn't stop. She eyed the rogues frothing on the ground snapping at her, eyes rage and lust fueled. Not hard to tell who had managed to stick them on her trail. Of course, that left the question of how the hell he had found her. Again. She shook her head, lips nearly turning down in a frown before she pushed the thoughts and feelings away. Problem for another day. And a debt I will be sure to repay with interest. She growled, turning back to the issue at hand –the pack wolves were edging closer to the rogues still to intent on their prey – on her- to catch their scents. Idiots. She sighed disgusted. But then I've let myself get caught just as thoroughly as they have. She thought dejectedly as she eyed the wolves again. Letting her mind widen just a touch she let her lids flutter closed, focusing, not just pack wolves, and not just any territory. An Alpha Heir, of course it was. And Salvatori at that. Perfect. Sarcasm thick enough on her thoughts she was surprised she didn't choke on it.

Unbeknownst to her, or perhaps to simply spite her one last time, fate had decided that five years of dedicated planning and strategizing was worth absolutely fucking nothing.

Sometimes she truly hated fate, sometimes she hated it nearly as much as she hated themForcing herself away from her irritation, she tried to surrender to the new twist fate was weaving into her life. Aislinn knew better than anyone that one could not simply run from fate.

Or fight it.

Or ignore it.

Or change it.

No matter how much one wanted to.

She had tried.

Tried and failed. Failed miserably. She let out a sigh in her mind. Wasn't her life enough? Couldn't she just have this one thing? Didn't she deserve at least this? Looking down again she guessed she could assume the answer was a resounding, NO.

She watched detachedly from her perch as the rogues that had tracked her were viciously ripped apart. Hidden in the safety of the old tree she ignored the growls and cries as she tried to figure out which parts, if any, of her plans she might still be able to salvage. Her mind racing as the last throat was ripped from its body.

She was still immobile and hidden high up in the tree, when Kaiden and his men realized they had missed a rogue. As they attempted to search for the culprit she silently settled herself on a thick branch her back resting against the trunk of the tree as she pulled out a sketch pad and pencil from her worn knapsack. Blocking everything out Aislinn didn't pay attention to when Kaiden finally noticed that the scent was coming from within the tree itself. She was simply too perturbed and upset with the loss of everything she had worked for five long years on, to bother with some random pack wolves, even an heir, at-the-moment. Stupid fucking fate.

Kaiden was close to a full-on rage. Liquid white-hot anger ripped through him at the idea that a rogue still dared to linger alive on his territory. Fury and rage were coming off him in waves as his head snapped to the tree that the rogues had been so focused on only minutes before. The pieces finally clicking in his mind.

"Austin it's in the fucking tree. The rogues were hunting one of their own, that's why their movements didn't make any fucking sense. Whoever the hell they wanted is in the goddamn tree." Kaiden mind linked his Beta as he suspiciously watched the shadows of the large oak for any signs of movement or life. Inhaling deeply, he tried to catch another whiff of the alluring scent of the rogue. He absently watched as his Beta hastily commanded fighters to spread out around the tree, directing the warriors and guards moving to make sure that all means of escape were cut off.

Moving closer to the base of the trunk, Kaiden looked up into the tall branches. The lowest was well off the ground, not an easy feat to climb. It was higher than even he at his height of 6'2, could reach easily. His movements stilled as he finally caught sight of the rogue. It sat further up then he even thought it would be possible to get at, but once he was able to distinguish the shape it was easy to make out the prone figure of a human shape amongst the shadows. Smaller than he had expected the rogue sat nearly invisible on a branch nearly 40 feet off the ground.

Now that he had pinpointed the rogues' location he inhaled deeply trying to catch the scent again. Searching through all the overlapping scents of the bloody and dead rogues around him, the various pack wolves in and out of the clearing and the normal scents of the night forest Kaiden searched for the scent he had only managed to get a hint of before. When he finally did it was like a hit to his chest. It was like nothing he had ever felt before, nothing he had ever smelt or encountered in his 24 years. His mind exploded, every thought flying from his head, blasted away until he was completely consumed.

Blair and Clayton were issuing orders around him for weapons to be brought out to their location, mind linking guards and warriors bringing them back to their location. Having spotted the figure themselves they had decided the only viable plan was to shot the rogue out of the tree. Wolves were usually loath to use guns but they couldn't exactly fight in a tree. Just as they were about to send runners back to the house to get weapons the voice of their alpha cut them off.

Kaiden's voice was rough, heavy with surprise and confusion, "My mate."

Austin's eyes narrowed his head whipping around to look at his best friend. Not getting anything else from the man he turned, beginning to search around them trying to see what was happening. Not understanding what Kaiden was talking about Austin looked to their Third, hoping perhaps he understood what Kaiden was talking about. Meeting Blair's eyes however Austin found only a mirror to his own confusion.

Kaiden spoke again his voice more certain this time, his words stronger. "She's my mate."

Austin was the first to find his voice, his mind flying as he tried to piece the events together, "Wait Kaid you don't mean the rogue? Do you?"

The air was thick with silence as every pair of eyes in the clearing, except for two, now locked on the frozen figure of the alpha-to-be.

For her part Aislinn didn't hear any of it, her eyes were focused of the page before her. Her focus consumed by the sketch that was coming to life across the soft white paper. Blocking out the whole world, she missed the moment, missed the words that changed her entire life.

"Yeah. Yeah man I do. The rogue she's my mate." Kaiden answered stunned as the certainty washed through him. He was too engrossed in the sight of his mate sitting on a branch in the moonlight to see or care about the stunned faces of his pack mates around him.

It was Clayton who spoke this time. Surprise and hesitancy tinting his tone. No one seemed to know what to make of this turn of events. A rogue as their Alpha's mate? And one who was being hunted down at that? "Alpha what ... what do you want us to do?"

Kaiden's eyes narrowed as he considered. His mate was in a tree where moments ago a dozen rogues had been trying to get at, and now it seemed she was refusing to come down.

"I don't know. She might be too scared to come down on her own. Obviously these rogues were after her for some reason." As the words left his mouth the sight they had come upon re-registered with the new knowledge that it had been his mate that they were after. The thought had a menacing growl leaving his throat. The rage it carried and implied was so vicious that even a couple of his own fighters standing near him took a self-conscious step back from their leader. Letting out a breath to shake off his anger the image had invoked, he looked back at the figure in the tree who still had not moved.

"She might not realize we won't hurt her. I'll just have to go up and get her." Kaiden said. The idea of rescuing his mate in his arms bringing a smile to his face.

Just as he was stepping forward towards the base of the tree his eyes focused up as he searched for the best way to go about climbing the thing, a voice cut the air. Before he could react to the new voice a body was suddenly flying to land directly in front of him.

The strange werewolf placed himself so he was now blocking the Alpha's path to his mate. Planting his feet his hands up in front of him, he physically barred the way to the tree before opening his mouth to shout.

"You can't go up there!"