Like a balloon being released in the air, I can feel myself being lifted out of the darkness that I have been trapped in.

It seems the higher I go, the more I begin to register.

It starts with pain. Like a pin ball that ricochets off of my shoulder.

I can sense the light around me. The warmth pushing on my eyelids and I know that when I do open my eyes, it will be bright.

Something cold touches the inside of my wrist and I can't help but bristle.

My eyes snap open and I regret it instantly. I already forgot about the light.

It doesn't smell familiar and I can't decide if that is a good thing or a bad one. On the one hand, it means that I am not in Harley's camp.

But it also means, I'm still not home.

"Good morning. Nice to see you finally awake." I turn my head to see an older man, with slightly greying hair looking down at me.

His light blue eyes hold no hostility, only friendliness as they crinkle in the corner from his smile.

My eyes look around frantically, trying to find something, anything that lets me know where I am.

Where did Jaclyn take us?

Wait.

"Jaclyn?" it hurts my throat to talk, but I manage to squeak out the word as my hand cups my throat.

"I gave you Auxilio to counteract whatever you were shot with. My guess is a very potent strain of Wolfsbane. I'm assuming Jaclyn is the wolf we found you on?" He grabs a clipboard, scribbling something down before looking at me.

The wolf they found me on? What the hell happened? Where is she?

My head nods slowly as he helps me to sit up.

"Alpha has her in the dungeon right now" My eyes snap to his and anger fills me.

Why am I being treated in what I suspect is a hospital but she is in the dungeon? I would have been captured if it weren't for her!

"I will inform him that you're awake and we will go from there." He must be able to see the anger rising in me, because he quickly excuses himself to get the Alpha.

My shoulder feels like it's throbbing. I can't help my curiosity as I pull my shirt collar down to look.

Call it morbid, call it whatever, I just need to see why it is throbbing. I remember being hit with something.

I gasp as I take in the quarter size hole in my skin. Light green veins sprout out moving towards my back and up towards my chest.

"That's the Auxilio at work. Kind of cool, isn't it?" My eyes snap to the voice that interrupted my grotesque examination.

I didn't even hear him come in to the room. I must have been way to lost in my thoughts.

I can see his green eyes looking me over. I know that look. It's the same look I give when I'm weary of someone.

When I think they could be a threat.

"We're no threat. I'd like to see my friend please." I adjust my shirt, not liking the way he kept staring at my bare shoulder.

He is young and probably not mated. But I am, well I have a mate, we just haven't mated.

Another reason why I am in the mess to begin with.

Crap, Harley sent someone to kill Reed! How long ago was that? I am too late?

"How far from MoonStone pack am I?!" I didn't mean to shout, but panic is rising in me like a tide.

The man squints his green eyes at me, like he is trying to solve a problem. It's uncomfortable.

"Aspen?" My eyes widen as he whispers my name.

I am pretty sure that I don't know him. His face doesn't look familiar and his smell is definitely not familiar.

So should I answer or pretend I don't know what he is talking about. What if he works for Harley?

"Your father and mate have been threatening every pack, looking for you." He digs in his pocket quickly pulling out his cell phone and dialing a number.

I don't know why I smile at this news. I thought they would be looking for me, but to have it confirmed is like waking up on Christmas morning.

"Alpha Mathers? This is Asher from Thunderwolves. We found her." The man, Asher, looked at me as my dad began shouting on the other end of the line for his men.

Thunderwolves is only about four hours to the south of Moonstone. It shouldn't take them very long to get here at all.

"I'm coming. Tell her I'm coming! Someone get Reed!" I could hear his voice from here and I flashback to when I first met Reed.

When he called my dad thinking I was rogue. This better not become a habit.

Asher hangs up and looks at me with a small, almost prideful smile.

"Thunderwolves. I thought the Alpha was Jeremy Ryan?" my mind goes over the names of all the Alpha's and all the packs, but no Asher.

"He stepped down last week. My first official act of Alpha is saving Alpha Reed's mate and Alpha Jarred's daughter. I'm off to a great start." His pride quickly turned into a smugness that isn't really fitting.

"Don't let it go to your ego. Where's my friend?" His smile drops a little as I stand to face him.

"Friend - oh you mean the wolf" he tosses his head over his shoulder "I'll take you to her."

I follow behind Asher quietly, wanting to check on Jaclyn.

I owe her so much. She helped me escape and then got me to safety.

Sure she was also the one that helped capture me, but after hearing her story I can't really be mad at her for that.

I can't say for sure that I wouldn't have made the same decision in her shoes.

"Why is she in the dungeon anyway?" Asher holds a steel door open for me, allowing me to go down the steps first.

Cold concrete surrounds me as we reach the bottom of the staircase. Ahead of us is a steel door and one man standing in front of it.

As soon as he sees Asher and I, he quickly nods and opens the door, reveling a small scared wolf huddled in the corner.

"I wouldn't really call it a dungeon. I mean it's in the dungeon, but it's an interrogation room. Much nicer than the cells. But she wouldn't shift." I move into the room quickly, looking over Jaclyn's small wolf. but she seems uninjured.

Still she whines and bumps her nose against me. I offer her a smile and run my hands through he fur, happy that she is okay.

"Did you give her any clothes?" I look to Asher, who nods at a pile of clothing in the corner.

If she had clothes, then why didn't she shift?

Her words from earlier when we were in the tunnels jump into my head. She didn't remember how to shift. When we were being pursued, she must have shifted out of panic to save us. Did she even realize what she had done.

"You don't know how, do you?" I asked softly, my hand still softly on her head.

She whines in response, bumping her nose against me again.

"Can we have a minute please?" I ask Asher, who looks a little taken aback that she wouldn't know how to shift.

His mouth flails open as he tries to find the right words to say. He gives up though and just nods to have the door closed.

I take a couple of steps back and give her a small encouraging smile.

"Think about your human side. Skin, Hair and so on. Focus on it and will it to come forward." She whines once and I know she is scared about the pain.

But the more she does it, the more the pain will subside. The worse should be over now. Before I can say any of that though, her bones contort and she collapses on the ground in her human form.

I take the shirt from the pile, helping to slide it over her head as she regains her breathing.

"I shifted" She says in awe, her eyes meeting mine in excitement.

But I don't congratulate her or tell her that I knew she could do it. Instead, I think of the bigger things she has done aside from shifting. She saved us, when I couldn't. Without her, I wouldn't be here.

"Thank you for saving me" I wrap my arms tightly around her neck.