The welcome Visena received was nothing short of incredible and entirely undeserved. T stood in the background with the bowing Praelia wolves, and they shared a look, blinking at one another.

Welcome home, my Queen. A rueful smile pulled at their lips.

You too. Visena's lower lip trembled before she pushed her thumbnail between her teeth and gnawed. Her eyes raked across the Warrior pack. Take care of them, T.

T turned towards the woods without a word and led the Praelia wolves home.

Invictus wolves descended in a blink, and she accepted their bone-crushing hugs, only just maintaining composure. But when Prim's blotchy, swollen face rounded the Packhouse, she broke down entirely. Prim quickly whisked the Fae away to her private cottage, and they sobbed in each other's embrace before falling asleep curled in Prim's bed.

"What happened?" Prim's sniffling whisper woke Visena in the early hours. Morning light barely touched the whispy privacy curtains framing the sills. "Why would they do it?"

Despite Visena's silence, her racing heart revealed her wakefulness. Prim continued, "Gideon said they were behind everything. Even Zeir."

The Dark Alpha's name left a foul taste in the Fae's mouth, and she was relieved she was currently the small spoon in the embrace. A slight flutter tapped on her back as Prim's baby woke in the womb. Morning, sweet one. The kicking increased, and Prim groaned, wiggling behind Visena to find a comfortable position. A sudden rush of love warmed Visena down the pack link, and she knew it was the infant. Prim and Orion's daughter. The knowledge shot down the link faster than the emotion. Tears welled in the Faeries eyes as she kept the secret buried- another one to add to the list.

With a calculating roll on her stomach, Visena wiped away the tears from the last twelve hours and pushed herself up on the bed. Prim followed suit and grasped her Alpha Queen's hands. "I'll always be here when you're ready to talk."

The responding voice could hardly muster a whisper. "I know."

*

"Take it down."

The subject in question was the barrier surrounding the Pack borders, and Visena was certain it could help her achieve her evolving plans.

"Are you insane?" Calypso questioned incredulously. "I spent all my energy expanding it around Malum, and now you want it gone? What the hell is going on in your head right now?"

Visena didn't offer a response, instead focussing her attention on picking at her raw cuticles.

"Why would you want the Humans to know our location after everything they have done?" The Witch tried again, a spasm taking hold beneath her left eye.

"It's the only way to stop them." A burning itch travelled down the Fae's throat as she ground the words past her teeth. "My magic will work here." The returning scrutinising eyes made Visena turn away, irritated. "You look like mother."

Calypso's eyes blazed, and a sneer pulled at her upper lip. "Good, perhaps she could have talked some sense into you. We can't just expose ourselves to the Human Council and their Hunter puppets. It would be better if they didn't know about us at all."

"Well, she's dead, and they do know about us."

The Witch huffed and went to find Mihnea in the next room. "Get out." The scowl on her face was enough to conjure a small storm.

Visena wanted to leave, but her legs weren't cooperating. She glamoured herself invisible and, through paper-thin walls, listened to the conversation she somehow only heard one side of.

"My darling, I have just finished turning the last Vampires into sun walkers. Will you give me a moment to revel in the fact that Hunters will never be able to hurt us again with those Ultra-Violet weapons?" The smile was evident in Mihnea's voice.

As Calypso replied silently, a sense of relief washed over Visena. The completion of her promise to him and the Vampires was her only solace.

"And? You do as you please, Calypso. At least you don't have to fraternise with Alderman Svend. I have no idea how he kept the packs afloat so long with his frivolous spending."

A brief pause filled the space, and Visena held her breath.

"The young Fae asked me to help him invest it, and I happily obliged. She saved my kind. It is the least I can do."

Visena felt the slightest peace for the first time in weeks. Despite her terrible mistake with E- No. With the humans, the minor improvements to the Wolves' well-being comforted her. But, truthfully, it felt like everyone else was doing the hard work while she hid away pathetically wallowing in self-loathing.

"At least you're finished with the barriers of the other packs. Now you can rest." Mihnea's voice words became muffled as if hands pressed against his lips. Their gentle love had her remembering another person in her life she was neglecting. He's keeping himself busy, though, so it doesn't matter...

Visena wandered aimlessly from Calypso's cottage, cloaking her footsteps and found herself at her special pond. Her cracking fingertips brushed the ferns and redwood bark as she breathed in their earthy aroma. The faintest cinnamon scent sent another twist of pain in her gut. Gideon. The Fae-Wolf Queen hardly talked to her mate and definitely didn't let him touch her since the incident. It felt like a betrayal to Eve's memory.

Why should I be happy when I took her happiness away?

"You look like shit. " Nairi snuck up behind her as she dipped her feet into the Invictus pond.

"Thanks."

"Why are you out here?" The Beta sat down and slipped her own bare feet into the shallow water, tadpoles quickly coming to investigate.

"I've been hoping I would see her," Visena replied quietly, stifling a cough.

"She's not in this forest," Nairi said, placing her hand over her Queens. "I would never normally say this, but you need to pull yourself together, Alpha Queen. Or they'll find your weakness and kill you."

"My only weakness is my family and Gideon. I don't care about me."

"That's my point, they'll go after the people you love, and if you somehow think dying won't destroy your family, you're wrong. We all need to survive this."

"We already haven't."

Nairi sighed. Visena had an answer for everything. After so much time to think in her solitude, nothing anyone said would fix the damage her mind had done. She hardly recognised her reflection anymore. Her eye's sat atop dark circles, and her hair lay flat against her skull.

"Can I tell you something?" Nairi asked.

"Yeah."

"The night after we met, I left Liam sleeping and explored your forests. It's nothing like my home, and I wanted to become acquainted. I saw Eve that night, and she told me she had heard about our meeting. She said she also hurt you very badly and wished she had properly apologised for it. It made me feel better about attacking you, but I'll never forget her expression or sadness. Eve loved you, Alpha. She would never have blamed you for this, and I'm sure she would give you hell for blaming yourself."

The words stirred something in the Fae, but she remained silent.

"Sometimes, when you would train, I would catch her watching you with the most adoring expression."

Visena scoffed and looked at her Beta. Nairi's tear-filled eyes had Visena biting back tears of her own.

"I know she loved you. She was so proud of you." A loud sniffle followed her words, and Nairi wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm really going to miss her."

"Me too," Visena whispered. "Me too."

*

After Nairi's unsolicited pep talk Visena started training, eating and showering again. Nairi was right about one thing; she needed to be in peak form if she was going to win against the Human council. As she started to feel stronger and healthier, she realised another fix for a dilemma her Beta raised. They can't hurt my family if none of them is here.

"Can you do it?" she rasped the question to her adopted Witch sister once again. Mihnea sat at their dining table, this time with a frown adorning his pale face.

"You want me to open the barrier, but only for you? You're delusional if you think any of these wolves will let you do that. You have a death wish now, I see."

Visena shifted in her chair and clenched her fists. "No. They won't get hurt because of me."

The animosity rolling from the Witch's body seemed to drip off, and Calypso looked away, shame flushing her cheeks. "I understand, but no. There's no way I could stop them from joining you in the fight."

"Can't or won't," Visena challenged.

"Can't, Visena. Even my grandmother didn't have that power, and you're a fool if you think I would ever let you do this alone."

"A fool, huh?"

Mihnea stood and took the Fae's hand. "She is right, child. I would never agree to that plan either."

Visena snatched her hand away with a scowl. "You don't have the right to make this choice for me!"

"You are correct. But you still cannot stop me from joining this fight. Or anyone else, for that matter."

"I can. I can command them all."

"Then you would be no better than the Council. I never imagined you to be a dictator, Visena. I must say I'm disappointed." Mihnea turned and left the cottage leaving Visena's ears burning from the chastising.

Calypso followed, and the Fae-Wolf Queen crumpled to the floor and cried.

~~~

A/N

Deserved emotions or dramatic?

She's certainly a mess right now

What do you think is happening for Visena- could it be more than just grief?

K