Sophie slowly and carefully made her way across the floor to the door of Zack's study, knowing she needed desperately to get out of this room and away from the surprisingly kind alpha who she had just told every painful memory of her childhood to. Her spine ramrod straight, hid the trembling of her limbs.

As she opened the door and stepped out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her, her shoulders dropped and she almost crumpled to the floor. Sheer determination to get away was the only thing holding her up at this point.

As she stumbled her way to the front door, she could hear voices coming from the front room and knew it was Zack and Alpha Thomas, but she couldn't face anyone. She needed time alone to pull herself back together and rebuild the walls that the retelling of her life had brought crumbling down.

She opened and closed the door as quietly as she could and made her way down the steps moving quickly to avoid detection. There were a few pack members milling about, but she ignored them all as she all but ran down the pathway which led to her destination. The creek.

As a child the few times she had managed to escape, she had always found herself sitting in a secluded spot she had found many years ago. Way of the path that most of the pack traveled, it was her place of peace and solitude and she needed that more than anything right now.

Almost before she realised she had reached her spot, she was there. And it was exactly the same, she marvelled. The trees so large they almost seemed to curve over her in protection.

As she settled down against the trunk of a ancient tree she let the peace of the silence wash over her.

Deliberately pushing away all thoughts of the interview she had just endured, Sophie closed her eyes and began to meditate. Meditation was something she had discovered in one of the self help books she had read. And much to her surprise at the time it had helped.

What could have been hours passed in the blink of an eye. As Sophie slowly came back to herself she became aware of voices moving towards her secluded corner. Male voices. Angry male voices.

"We should have killed him two damn years ago!" The first voice said. "He should never been allowed to become Alpha!" He all but growled.

"We were all told the same thing. No one touches Zack but the Alpha." Said a second voice. "All we have to do is keep it together for another few days till those council idiots finish up their investigation and leave. Then the Alpha will retake the pack and everything goes back to the way it was."

"But what if the council find out the truth? What if they find out it was Ronan......"

"No one is gonna find out cos we are the only ones who know the truth." The second voice said angrily. "And we sure as shit aren't gonna tell them are we?"

"But Zack knows as well!" First voice says harshly.

"And do you really think Zack is gonna turn in his own parents?" Said second. "And once we rally the rest of the pack to Alpha Ronan's side Zack won't stand a chance against us all." He said smugly.

Sophie sat frozen to the spot, thanking the Goddess she was sitting down wind or the two males would surly have scented her presence. Her mind raced at what she was hearing. These wolves were talking about a plan to get rid of Zack as Alpha and for his father to be reinstated. That alone was considered treason and was punishable by banishment or death. But what really concerned her was what did Zack know about his parents that he didn't want the council to know. It had to be something to do with her and the council investigation into her torturer.

What was it Zack was keeping secret? From the council and from her.

Sophie became aware of the voices of moving away and quietly expelled the breath she hadn't even been aware of holding. She slowly stood and tried to get a look at them as they made their way back towards the center of the pack town, but could only see the back of one of them, and unfortunately it could have been anyone of at least a dozen males of the pack.

After making sure they were definitely gone, she followed their path and found herself once again on the rough path that led back to the pack house.

Her mind raced with questions. Who were the males planning sedition. What did they know about her situation, both before and now. And most prominent in her mind. What was Zack keeping from both her and the council representatives. How was he protecting his parents. And what did it mean for her.

All of these questions and unknowns, only reinforced her intention to leave this place once and for all when this was all over. She knew she had been right not to trust Zack completely.

As she made her way back to the house she tried hard to ignore the small part of her that was quietly crying at the thought that her mate had once again betrayed her.