Lily sat at the dining room table in Jack's home, looking at the book in her emergency bag. It was a large heavy scrapbook filled with pictures, something her mother started when she began to have Lily and her sisters. The beginning was filled with some early pictures of her parents, then baby pictures of their three kids, and then pictures of them when they were older. A large part of the book was still empty, but Lily wasn't focused on what memories were missing.

One of the pictures at the beginning of the photo album was an older picture in black and white. A tall woman was holding a baby with a mane of dark hair, both sharing a wide grin to the camera, but you could see the sparkle in the woman's eyes even through the still image. A wildness that couldn't be hidden.

Her mother was an adorable baby, but her grandmother was everything Lily wanted to be when she was older; strong, wild, and effortlessly free. She wouldn't be as reckless as her, she'd actually visit her family and friends, but the stories she always heard from her were magical.

Lily was still staring at the page when she heard the door go. It was the afternoon, Jack had dropped her off before going to visit Claire and Karen to collect more maths notes from them, but Lily declined the invitation. She had questions that needed answers. She needed to talk to her aunt.

Aunt Ollie stepped through the door of Jack's home with a sigh, her nurse rags sweaty from a long morning shift. She usually enjoyed these kinds of shifts, the ones that let her hang out with Lily in the evening, but today she was exhausted. Some of her younger patients had woken up in a bad mood and it had rubbed off on her.

"Aunt Ollie?" Lily called, hearing her take off her shoes and put her bag down. Her aunt poked her head into the dining room where they'd all had breakfast hours before. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Ollie flickered her gaze to her adoptive niece, to the scrapbook she was holding, and drew up the remaining energy she had left. "Sure," she answered. "Let me get out of my clothes first."

Lily smiled and waited as Ollie walked to her spare room. They were both alone in the house, or as alone as they could be. Somehow, Lily always felt like someone was watching her in Jack's home. Whether it was due to Freida's eerie persona or the amount of flowers around her, Lily always felt like she was going to be surprised at any moment.

Lily pushed the feeling to the back of her mind and gently brushed the picture of her grandmother. Andrew's grandfather described her with hair like the rare blood moon and eyes like the brightest of stars in his alpha's log.

But Lily's grandmother had brown eyes. All of her family had brown eyes.

Ollie walked back into the kitchen wearing her flannelette Marvel pyjamas with a smile that was a little wider thanks to her bright clothes. "What's on your mind?" Ollie asked as she took a seat opposite Lily, staring fondly at the album in her hands. "Oh, Cordie was so small." She reminisced.

Lily pursed her lips as she gathered her words. "Did Mum ever talk about Granny Haven much?"

"Nerida?" Ollie's eyes widened. "No, not really. Whenever she was brought it was 'cause she was in town. Cordie spoke about how wild her mother was, Nerida never said where she was going next."

Lily hesitated. "Is... Is she still alive?"

Ollie frowned before standing and making herself a cup of Freida's homemade tea. "I haven't heard from her since before Cordie passed." Ollie admitted while the kettle boiled. "Last I heard she was traveling north to the mountains, wanted to try free climbing, I think. You were barely ten but we never heard from her after."

Lily looked back at the picture. "Does she know about Mum and Dad? Rio and Delta?"

Ollie poured her tea but kept her back to Lily. Lily saw her shoulders drop at the mention of her sisters' names. "Not that I know of. Nerida never left a way to contact her, always said it was part of the adventure and she wouldn't give any spoilers before she came back."

Lily smiled a little. She remembered her father and her grandmother getting into an argument about her leaving without a word and arriving without an invitation. Her grandmother always turned to him with a smirk and gleam, a promise.

"I don't want to listen to your complaining anyway - why do I need a phone? They're unreliable." Nerida waved a hand in front of her father, who was gripping his dark blonde hair, Rio's hair, in frustration.

"What if something happens Nerida? What if Cordie needs you, or what if the girls want to talk to you? What if we need your advice?" Her father pleaded, trying to reason with the old woman.

But try as he might, no one could reason with a tempest. Nerida Haven stared him down with narrowed dark eyes. "What advice would you need from me, Douglas?"

Her father clasped his hands together, fidgeting with his fingers. "What about the girls?"

Nerida smiled like she'd finally found the burrow to her injured prey. "Ah. This is about the youngest?"

"She's a lot like you already."

"She's blessed then." Nerida's grin was wide before her eyes flickered past Douglas's shoulder to where Lily was hiding in the hallway, eavesdropping. "Ain't that right, little Lilith?" She called, laughing when Lily scurried off before her father could ground her.

Lily blinked away the memory as Ollie set her tea down in front of her and sat back in her seat, staring at the old picture of Nerida Haven holding baby Cordelia. Nerida nicknamed her 'Lilith' after her hellish temper tantrums as a toddler, even though she was just Lily, but it stuck over the years. Nerida called Rio 'trouble' and Delta 'squirt'.

Ollie wet her lips, looking at Lily carefully. "Nerida always seemed to know where we were, no matter how far we travelled. If she's still out there, abseiling or cliff jumping who knows, then she'll find us."

Lily kept staring at the old picture. "Andrew read us a passage from his grandfather's log today - it said that they'd ran into a woman with red hair being chased by rogues. She ran over an active mudslide to get away, then blew them a kiss, and ran off."

Ollie cocked her head. "You think that was Nerida?"

Lily nodded and watched her aunt carefully. "What do you think?"

She let out a laugh. "Sounds like your grandmother."

"What would she be doing on wolf territory fifty years ago?"

"Whatever she wanted." Ollie mused. "Your grandmother never believed in rules and borders. She went and did what she wanted and when she wanted - she probably deliberately coaxed the rogues to chase her for the thrill of it."

"She wasn't afraid that she'd be caught?"

"Lily, Nerida feared nothing." Ollie paused. "Only containment, I think."

Lily finally drew up the courage to ask her aunt the question that had been plaguing her mind since the alpha's log that morning. "Do you know what creature she was?"

Ollie blinked. "No, she never spoke about anything supernatural when I was around helping Cordie. And when she wasn't, Cordie never spoke about Nerida that way - it was always about where she could be and when she'd return. I never saw her eyes shift, I'm sorry."

Lily nodded slowly and stared back at the baby picture of her mother, realisation sinking in her belly. Ollie sipped her cooling tea, cringing at Freida's taste, but smiled softly at her. "If she were here I'm sure she'd be able to answer your questions. We'll just have to wait and see if she returns."

Lily nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess." She couldn't help but sound defeated. She hoped that Ollie would know something about her grandmother, anything at all, but Ollie was as useful as always - she was a human friend to her mother and her family were too secretive to tell Ollie anything important. None of them could have predicted what happened to them though, and Lily knew Ollie wasn't to blame for her ignorance, but Lily was frustrated nonetheless.

Both of them perked up when the door opened again and Jack strode in, her hair windswept and eyes wide in panic.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked, standing up as she darted into the dining room.

"No!" Jack gasped for breath. "I was just with Claire and Karen, they say hi by the way, and Karen's dad just read out an email he got from the school."

"What happened at the school?" Lily's stomach churned, thinking the worst.

"The worst possible thing ever," Jack flailed her arms. "School's back tomorrow!"

Lily's heart lifted immediately. "Oh. Is that all?"

Jack blinked at her. "School. Is. Back. I don't think you heard me, our week long break has been cut short and you're not mad?!"

"No, not really?"

Jack sighed, staring at the ceiling. "Homework is going to be the death of me, I can feel it. How dare the school tempt us with a whole week off and give us only a day? I barely got a sleep in this morning!"

Lily smiled at Jack's complaining. "I'm sure we'll be fine Jack."

Jack groaned. "Speak for yourself. I have homework coming out my ears I swear."

Ollie laughed and stood, putting her cold tea in the sink. "I'll leave you two girls to catch up on your homework and prepare for school tomorrow then."

Lily frowned as her aunt left with a cheery wave, heading to her room to rest after her long shift, and Jack slumped into her seat. "My life is over." She muffled as she slammed her face into her hands.

"Did Andrew not find anything else about the rogues then?" Lily asked, sitting back down. "I guess I can go back home?"

Jack shrugged. "I guess, ask your best friend Ryan tomorrow."

Lily flushed. "He's not my best friend, come on."

"Oh really?" Jack deadpanned. "I would have guessed so by the fact you're the only person who's on a first name basis with him."

"Jack-"

"And he complains when his seat next to you isn't free."

"Jack, hey-"

"And he waits for you after school to drive you places."

"Hey!" Lily whined, her cheeks as flamed as her hair.

Jack dropped her hands on the table and looked at Lily's smooth hair and calm expression, knowing her dark hair was in agitated spikes and eyes dull in exhaustion. "I have so much homework." She groaned again, ignoring Lily's smile. "Shut up."

Lily laughed and Jack noticed the scrapbook on the table. "What's that?"

Lily's hand slammed on the book when Jack reached for it. "Nothing," Lily blurted. "Just a photo album, that's all."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "So it's not your secret book filled with pictures of you and Ryan? Little love hearts with your initials and future kids names?"

Lily went red. "Of course not! Seriously Jack?"

The witch laughed at her friend's reaction. "I'm just teasing Lily, relax."

"I know, it's okay." Lily pushed the album off the table and rested it in her lap. "Shall we try and get through all this homework?"

Jack paled. "Do you think I could contract a sudden illness for a week?"

"Depends on how much raw meat you eat." Lily smirked. "Is food poisoning really a better alternative to homework?"

"You haven't had Mrs Khan for Ag yet." Jack shook her head. "It's a seriously tempting offer."

Lily stood. "Come on, we'll work through it together."

"If I drop dead during homework then don't revive me!" Jack cried as Lily went to grab her notebooks.

When she placed the album down by her bag, Lily's heart was still muddled. She didn't learn anything knew about her wild grandmother, and with school back tomorrow there wasn't a chance she could go through Andrew's library for clues on who she was.

Lily felt like she was taking two steps forward and three steps back. Would she ever find out what kind of blood swam in her veins? What kind of creatures her family were?

She decided focusing on homework was healthier. She couldn't do anything now but hope Ryan would let her postpone the library visit. She pushed all thoughts of Nerida Haven out of her head - even though a voice kept whispering to her, wondering where the wild old woman was now, and whether she'd stop her adventures to see her only granddaughter and tell her all the family secrets.

Lily hoped she was still alive, just so she wasn't truly the last member of her family, and cursed with oblivion for the rest of her life.